


Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Book One: Ginji's Rescue Team

by Lilcoffeeoak15



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Genre: Action/Adventure, Friendship, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-30 23:13:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 58,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15106769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilcoffeeoak15/pseuds/Lilcoffeeoak15
Summary: In a world inhabited only by Pokémon, a boy named Ginji wakes up one day to discover he has been transformed into a Torchic. With only the memory of his name, he teams up with a playful but good-natured Pikachu, forming rescue team Heroes. With the help of his new friend, Ginji will make new friends and allies, as well as foes, and discover things he never imagined he'd know before.





	1. The Adventure Begins: Tiny Woods Crisis

**Author's Note:**

> AN: Just a few things I'd like to say before you start reading this. First of all, I know lots of people have put the plot of Mystery Dungeon in written form. So the concept is nothing new. However, what's going to happen in this series is that I'm going to be writing the plots of the Mystery Dungeon games starting with Red and Blue Rescue Team and working my way through the series whilst having them all be connected and in the same universe. I will burrow elements from official Pokémon Mystery Dungeon media, Ginji's name, scar, as well as the name of the manga being the first things I'm using, as well as adding some new plots and characters.
> 
> I would actually like to thank Pilot231 of Deviantart, YouTube, and Voice Acting Alliance for giving me the inspiration in the first place. I recall him once bringing up that Pokémon Mystery Dungeon would have been great as an actual series, and I'm sure so many Mystery Dungeon fans would agree on that. He even had his own characters and stories set for a fan series. So, thanks dude. If it weren't for you I probably wouldn't even be writing this now.

* * *

 

_"Where am I?_ " The boy thought to himself as he struggled to open his eyes. That proved to be challenging as his head was aching, along with being in a state of morning fatigue. He wasn't aware of his surroundings, but judging by the soft, pleasant breeze lightly touching his cheek and the smell of fresh air, it seemed to be a quiet area outside. He felt something soft yet somewhat itchy against his body, so he assumed he must be laying on the grass. He couldn't quite make out much sounds, but was faintly hearing something, or someone. As he began to force his eyelids open, the sound became much clearer, confirming it was someone.

 

"Hey, are you alright? C'mon, say something! Please wake up!"

 

The voice sounded like an adolescent male, maybe a couple years older than the boy. His eyes shot fully open and the first thing he was greeted with was the sun blazing in them, threatening to melt them if he kept staring at the big ball of fire in the sky. He shut them again to banish the heat from his eyeballs, and lifted himself up off the grassy ground to stand on his feet. He fluttered his eyelids a bit to get rid of whatever haziness he had left in him. He opened his mouth wide to let out a yawn before finally checking his surroundings,which consisted of mostly trees and stumps bar a small puddle a few feet ahead. It dawned on him that he was in a small clearing in woods of some sort.

 

"Wow, you're finally awake! Great!"

 

He turned to his left to face whoever that voice belonged to and expected it to be anyone besides who he ended up facing. Standing in front of him was a furry yellow rodent with a small red circle on either cheek, long ears with black, pointy tips, and a tail shaped like a lightning bolt. A Pikachu was talking to him.

 

"You were passed out here. Good thing you came to. I was starting to get worried."

 

The boy was incapable of speech. How do you respond to something spoken by a giant Pikachu? You don't, usually; seeing as how Pokémon shouldn't be able to speak at all. The only thing he could think of doing was spitting whatever popped into his head out.

 

"Wow! You're a Pikachu! A giant, talking Pikachu! Just how are you talking? You're a Pokémon! And why are you so huge?!"

 

The Pikachu seemed to think it was a joke, because the next thing he did was chuckle and say:

 

"Good one, Torchic! You're pretty funny."

 

A Torchic? Did that Pikachu just call him that? Why? Didn't he know a human when he saw one? If he'd even seen a human before, that is. Maybe not. But still, how could he mistake one for a Torchic? Obviously he would have seen a Torchic before if he's calling him one. He was about to tell him the obvious, but the Pikachu started asking away.

 

"How'd you end up unconscious here? What's with the scar on your forehead? Who are you? I don't think I've seen you around before."

 

Come to think of it, where was he? Had he been here before? He didn't recognize this place. But he was sure he wasn't from around here. At least not that he knew of. But why couldn't he remember? More importantly, who was he?

 

"That's cause I'm not from around here. At least I don't think so."

 

"You don't think so? Are you feeling okay, Torchic?"

 

"Stop calling me Torchic! Don't you know the difference between a human and a Pokémon?!" The boy spat.

 

"Well, Yeah, I do! And I believe you should too!" The Pikachu answered back with a rushed voice, shocked by the boy's sudden harsh tone.

 

The boy continued to pester the Pikachu.

 

"Why are you so big, anyway?! And just how are you talking?! You're a Pokémon!"

 

The Pikachu kept the alarmed look on his face.

 

"Well, you're talking too and you're a Pokémon! And we're both normal sized!"

 

"What?" The boy asked before shaking his head over the realization of what the Pikachu had just called him. "No, I'm not a Pokémon! I'm a human and my name's Ginji!" He argued.

 

"Well, you look just like any ordinary Torchic to me, except for that scar on your forehead!" The Pikachu argued back.

 

Ginji was getting more irritated by the minute. He marched over to the small puddle he recognized as one of the first things he saw upon waking up and turned to Pikachu's direction.

 

"See! I'm not a-" He looked at his reflection in the puddle, and was greeted with an unfamiliar, fire orange, fluffy face. Instead of red hair as he remembered himself having, there were three curved feathers with yellow edges on top of his head. And what he was seeing this through were two puny black dot like eyes as opposed to the ones that were white with a black pupil and emerald green irises around the pupil he would have seen when he looked at his reflection before. On his forehead was a scar shaped like an X. How he got it was the last thing on his mind right now. He backed away in shock. He gazed down at his body. It wasn't the body of a human, though. It was small, round and fuzzy, rather than tall, straight with smooth skin. Two tiny wings were in place of where his arms should have been, and instead of human legs, skinny, chick-like ones stood beneath him. He looked at his rear, and sure enough, there was a short, feathered tail. There was no denying it. He was a Torchic.

 

"Aaaahhh! I am a Pokémon! But how?! Since when?! And why?!"

 

Pikachu scurried over to him with a look on his face that told Ginji he thought he was crazy.

 

"I swear, I was a human! I wasn't like this before!" He objected.

 

Pikachu held that baffled stare on him.

 

"You're... kind of wierd. Funny, but wierd." He told him.

 

Before either of them had time to say anything else, a cry came from the woods.

 

"Somebody! Please, help me!"

 

A Butterfree emerged into the clearing, her wings fluttering violently.

 

"What's wrong, Miss?" Called Pikachu before Butterfree could shoot past them. Ginji stood there quietly, uneasy over the fact that he would be talking to more Pokémon and be expected to see it as perfectly normal.

 

The Butterfree went on to explain the situation with much concern and fear.

 

"It's horrible! I was taking my son Caterpie on a walk in Tiny Woods,and then a huge fissure opened up in the ground-of course it didn't affect me as I can fly- and Caterpie fell in!"

 

_"It didn't affect you? No, really? Because I always thought those fissures had a special power that could suck any airborne thing in the ground."_  Ginji wisecracked to himself but didn't dare say it aloud taking Butterfree's situation into consideration.

 

"He's too young to crawl out by himself!" Butterfree continued.

 

Pikachu jumped back, not only startling Ginji, but practically whacking him in the face with his arm.

 

"What?! And you didn't try to get him out?!"

 

"Man, can you be any more hyper?" Ginji asked out of annoyance in being startled and almost having a clump of yellow fur knock him off his feet.

 

Pikachu ignored him and listened to what Butterfree had to say.

 

"I tried to! But when I went to get him, wild Pokémon attacked me!"

 

"Really? Wild Pokémon attacking in Tiny Woods? That's new. Tiny Woods is the safest dungeon around, and the wild Pokémon there are usually tame."

 

"They must have been enraged by the fissure and went out of control! At least that's what I think. I'm not strong enough to fend off all those wild pokemon on my own. What will become of my poor baby?!" Butterfree cried.

 

Ginji was focused on the way Butterfree moved. She was able to keep herself up in the air, fluttering her wings hard, never getting tired. Even in the most dire of situations such as the one going on here. It was pretty amazing how she was like that. Ginji wondered what other kinds of Pokémon could do in times like this, and how they would react.

 

"Calm down. We'll rescue Caterpie!" Pikachu announced right away as if he was a six-year-old being offered candy. "Let's go, Torchic."

 

Before Ginji had a chance to say no or tell Pikachu he didn't want to go in whatever this "Tiny Woods" place was, he was being pushed to the entrance by two small paws.

 

"Hey, wait a minute, I never said yes! And for the last time my name's Ginji, not Torchic! Quit shoving me!" Ginji yelled one thing after another and Pikachu pretended to remain oblivious to the fact Ginji didn't want to do this. He simply kept pushing the human turned chick Pokémon forward.

 

"Be careful!" Butterfree called to them. And before he knew it, Ginji had entered his first mystery dungeon.

* * *

 

"So why is this place called Tiny Woods anyway?" Ginji asked as the two of them started making their way through the woods on a dirt covered path.

 

"Take a guess." Pikachu answered with the tiniest bit of playful sarcasm in his voice.

 

Granted, looking around the woods didn't look very big at all, even by small Pokémon standards, but how was Ginji supposed to know they were so small when he had just woken up as a Torchic in a place he was sure he had never been to before?!

 

"Sorry, I'm kind of new to this stuff." Ginji put emphasis on the word "new" so that this mouse got the message that he was not an expert of the Pokémon world.

 

The two then heard multiple loud squawks overhead. The sound revealed to be a flock of Pidgey flying towards them.

 

"Do we run?" Ginji asked.

 

Pikachu turned to him dumbfounded. Obviously Ginji had made himself look like an idiot. "Do we run?! From a flock of Pidgey?! Haven't you ever battled before?"

 

_"Why, no I haven't battled before because I'm a human and I woke up to discover that I am now a Pokémon for some reason and I'm just going to guess I'm an inexperienced one that can't take on simple things like Pidgey yet."_  was what Ginji wanted to say, but somehow he doubted Pikachu was going to go with his story if he tried to explain it a third time, seeing as how he didn't even buy it the second time he tried to tell him.

 

"Not really." Ginji answered humbly.

 

"Man, you must have really hit your head before you fell unconscious. You've got a lot to relearn." Pikachu sounded a bit more understanding now.

 

Ginji was going to respond, but before he could do that a Pidgey pecked him on the head, causing him fall on his face. The Pidgey perched itself on his back and proceeded to peck at him.

 

"Ow! A little help over here would be nice!" He called to Pikachu while trying to keep his face out of the dirt and the dirt out of his mouth, making his voice muffled.

 

"Something tells me I'm going to be doing this for a while." Pikachu muttered to himself.

 

"Thundershock!" The electric mouse cried out. A flow of electricity shot from his body, heading towards Ginji's direction. Ginji felt a wave of said electricity flow through his veins, frying not only the Pidgey, but him too. How Pokémon could survive this, he had no idea. The Pidgey fell to the ground with swirls in its eyes. Ginji collapsed in a similar fashion.

 

"Hehe, whoops. Didn't mean to hit you too. Guess I should practice controlling my electricity." He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head with his paw and smiling innocently.

 

"Thanks for the help, Pikachu. I really appreciate it, even if you almost turned me into fried chicken." Ginji coughed, a mixture of dirt and cloudy smoke flying out of his beak.

 

"I have got to teach you about battling." Pikachu concluded.

 

They had gotten decently far into the woods when Ginji decided to ask the question that had been on his mind for a couple minutes-those minutes being after Pikachu had told him what they were in was called a "mystery dungeon".

 

"Hey, um, Pikachu?"

 

"Yeah?" Pikachu turned to him.

 

"Why do they call these places mystery dungeons? I mean, this isn't even a dungeon. It's called "Tiny Woods."

 

"Well, to be honest I don't really know either. I guess some pokemon just decided to give places like this that name. No one really knows how and when they appeared." He answered. "But I think the mysterious part has something to do with the fact that every time you enter one, the floor changes."

 

"What do you mean?"

 

"You see, when you enter a dungeon, there are different parts of it known as floors. You make your way to the next one and it will have other things to discover, and will be slightly different from the one before. But that's not the big mystery part. Every time you go back to the dungeon, the floors will change. You have to be careful though. It's easy to get lost in them, and if you do, you have to wait to be rescued by other Pokémon if you don't find your way out on your own." Pikachu explained.

 

"Oh, thanks for making me feel safe in here with that last bit of information." Ginji remarked.

 

"Don't worry, it's just Tiny Woods. You'd have to have a pretty bad sense of direction to get lost in here." Pikachu assured him with a friendly chuckle.

 

Ginji nodded, half-certain he got the idea of mystery dungeons.

 

It seemed that they were almost where the fissure happened because they started noticing little cracks in the ground. They started getting bigger as they continued along.

 

"Wow, pretty big amount of damage for a place like this." Ginji stated.

 

Pikachu nodded. "A lot of natural disasters have been happening recently. Lots of Pokémon have been affected by them. They started out small, but as time went by, they started to become more threatening. We don't know what's causing all this, but experienced Pokémon have been investigating."

 

Ginji nodded back.

 

There was a small rustling sound behind them.

 

"Did you hear that?" Ginji asked, turning to Pikachu.

 

"Shhh! Yeah, I did." Pikachu whispered, his ear twitching. He looked in the direction of a couple of small bushes that's leaves appeared to be shaking. That would most likely be where the sound was coming from.

 

The two stood staring at the tingling bushes quietly, readying themselves for whatever would eventually pop out. Ginji took a couple steps towards the bush with his beak pointed forward.

 

"What are you doing?" Pikachu called after him as quietly as he could, though just loud enough for Ginji to hear him.

 

"Checking it out. I don't scare easily." Ginji answered back. He was now inches away from the bushes. He squinted, peering into the gaps of them, trying to get a closer look. He then noticed a pair of small, black circles much like his and Pikachu's eyes looking at him from the inside. The two circles became multiple ones. Ginji was then knocked on his back by a small force colliding into his torso. He was now surrounded by the sound of bouncing and multiple voices that kept chanting "Sunkern" over and over, While he had the weight of one of these creatures on his chest.

 

"Ah! Get it off me! Help!" He cried out as he struggled to get up. He somehow managed to get the creature off of him by edging his head down far enough to flick it off with the side of his beak. He rose to his feet and stood in the center of a circle that was filled with yellow seed-like Pokémon with cheerful smiles and cute dotted eyes. They kept bouncing up and down, chanting their names. Ginji looked at them all. They didn't seem vicious. Well, they looked about as threatening as actual sunflower seeds themselves. Pikachu started towards Ginji and the Sunkern. He pushed his way through the seed pokemon, his arms folded.

 

"Don't scare easily, huh?" He nudged Ginji with his elbow, a huge smirk on his face.

 

Ginji scowled at him. "I wasn't scared, just a little.. um.. startled. Yeah, that's all."

 

"Alright, whatever you say." Pikachu teased.

 

"Anyway, they're just a bunch of Sunkern. And they don't seem to be affected by whatever it is that's going on with the Pokémon. In fact, I think I'm going to ask them if they've seen Caterpie." Ginji stepped in front of the one that pounced on him and looked down at it. "Hi, little guy. We're just a couple of normal friendly pokemon looking for someone. Have you seen a little Pokémon called Caterpie come by. He's small, green, fuzzy. Has no arms or legs. Sound familiar?"

 

The Sunkern gained puzzled looks on their faces, and looked at one another left and right.

 

"Well, I probably did something wrong yet again, only this time in front of a group of Sunkern." Ginji thought to himself. That was confirmed by Pikachu's sigh from behind him. He didn't even want to begin to guess what the mouse pokemon was going to say to him. "I think you're offending them by insulting their intelligence." He commented.

 

"You think?" Ginji asked.

 

"Maybe you should try asking them in a not so stupid way. Like they actually have a brain?" Pikachu suggested.

 

Ginji grunted and tried taking Pikachu's advice. "Have any of you seen a Caterpie and Butterfree come by here earlier? If so which direction?"

 

The cheerful smiles on the Sunkern's faces dissappeared, and were replaced with spiteful ones. They all got in a line and from the looks of it, started preparing an attack. Ginji backed away slowly with a slight smile on his face, and a drop of sweat running down his forehead. "Uh..heh heh... no need to get angry guys, I just asked a simple question." He chuckled nervously. "Pikachu.. why have they started getting angry all of a sudden? Was it something I said or do they just not want us to find Caterpie for some reason?"

 

"Beats me." Pikachu shrugged. "Maybe they just don't like you."

 

This caused Ginji to perk his head up and glower at Pikachu.

 

"But I think it has something to do with the disasters happening. Pokémon could seem absolutely fine one minute and the next minute want to punch your lights out." Pikachu went on to explain, not paying attention to Ginji's glare.

 

"So what do we do now? There's at least a dozen of them." Ginji pointed out, now standing beside Pikachu.

 

"Well, Sunkern are grass types, and you're a fire type. Got any fire moves to use?"

 

Come to think of it, what moves could he use? He had never actually tried attacking that Pidgey they had encountered earlier due to being unexpectedly attacked by it and almost being barbecued by an electric attack. And that was the last thing he wanted to have happen to him again so he figured now would be the perfect time to try out one of his attacks.

 

"Alright, let's see what I can do. Flamethrower!" He opened his beak, waiting for a wave of fire to come out and fry the seed pokemon. The only thing he managed to do was cough out a puff of smoke. This only gave the Sunkern the opportunity to launch their attack. They spat out a rapid pattern of seeds from their mouths, bouncing off of Ginji's cheek one by one. "Ow ow ow! What kind of dumb move was that?! Why can't I use flamethrower?!" Ginji shouted, his eyes shut tight in order to avoid getting a seed shot in one of them.

 

"Obviously you don't know how to use flamethrower yet! Try something easier, like ember!" Pikachu shouted back, fending off some of the Sunkern that were now attacking him.

 

Of course. He was inexperienced and definitely couldn't use a move like that yet. How could he have been so stupid? "Ok, then. Ember!" He opened his beak again, but this time something else happened. The Sunkern were now blue with patterns running up and down their bodies.

 

"Hey, Pikachu! What's happening now?"

 

"You just used growl. That's a move that lowers their attack. That would be pretty useful right now." Pikachu told Ginji. He then hit a couple of Sunkern with a tackle, sending them hurling across the grass. "Keep it up!"

 

Ginji obeyed him, opening his mouth to use another growl. Sure he wished he could use a fire attack, but at least he was doing something right. He kept moving to the side whenever the Sunkern were headed towards him. They weren't hard to avoid at all. In fact, they were really easy opponents overall. But looking at Pikachu fighting them all by himself, Ginji decided he should pitch in a bit too. He tried to find an attack he could use. Peck? He darted at a Sunkern with his beak outstretched. He hit it, but didn't do much damage to it. Not yet. He thought of an attack he should know for sure. Before another Sunkern could run into him, he picked up his foot, and scraped it across the small seed's body. It sent the pokemon flying in the other direction. That must have been scratch. He continued to use scratch on close range ones, and growl for the ones close to Pikachu. It wasn't long before the group of Sunkern were defeated.

 

"Nice job." Pikachu gave him a thumbs up.

 

Ginji proudly glanced at him. "I was pretty good, huh?"

 

"You sure were. But seriously, you really can't use any fire moves yet? You really do have a lot to learn."

 

Ginji grumbled at this statement. It would have been nice of he was able to use a fire move, but he knew he wasn't experienced enough yet. He also took into account that he wasn't really a Pokémon, either. But Pikachu couldn't have been that experienced either.

 

"Well, what moves do you know?" Ginji asked him, hoping that the answer would make him feel better about his battling skills.

 

Pikachu smiled sheepishly and rubbed his paw on the back of his head like he had done so when he had accidentally zapped Ginji. "Um..let's see. Thundershock, tackle, and tail whip."

 

"Tail whip. That just lowers your opponents defence, doesn't it?" Ginji asked teasingly.

 

"Hey, at least I can use a move that matches my type." Pikachu retorted, teasing him back. "Besides, growl only lowers your opponents attack, and you seem to be proud of yourself that you were able to help me with that move, so that kind of makes you a hypocrite. No offence."

 

"None taken. You do raise a good point." Ginji laughed.

 

Ginji had no idea how they went from not understanding and confusing one another to laughing with one another and teasing each other in a childlike manner and calling one another out on their flaws jokingly. Ginji recalled being told somewhere-possibly when he was younger-that even the most two different individuals could become the best of friends. Perhaps this is what whoever said that to him meant? He was interrupted from his thoughts when he heard sobbing coming from the clearing up ahead.

 

"Hey, did you hear that?" Ginji asked as he focused on the noise.

 

"We must be at the end of the woods. And that's probably Caterpie." Pikachu suspected.

 

He was now running towards the clearing on all fours, leaving Ginji on the spot in a trail of dirt dust. Ginji coughed a bit before running ahead to catch up with Pikachu.

 

"Hey, wait up! Slow down!" He wailed trying to keep up with the rodent Pokémon. Pikachu must have been to far ahead to hear, because the next thing Ginji knew, he disappeared into the clearing, out of sight.

* * *

 

"Mama, where are you?" Sobbed a young Caterpie curled up into a ball, lying at the bottom of the ditch the fissure made. He wasn't hurt or anything, but it was still scary for him to be alone in this deep hole without his mother. Especially after those wild pokemon tried to attack her. He didn't know what to do right now but he hoped they were gone by now and that his mother would come looking for him. He continued to weep some more, but then he heard a shout.

 

"Hey, Caterpie? Are you there?"

 

A spark of hope lit up inside Caterpie, and he dried his tears a bit. "I'm down here!" He answered to the shout. He uncurled himself and looked up to the earth's surface to be greeted with a furry yellow face with long, pointy ears and red cheeks looking back down at him from over the edge of the pit.

 

"There you are!" The Pikachu shouted. "We came to rescue you!"

 

"Who's we?" Caterpie asked not seeing anyone else with the Pikachu. The sound of pitter pattering up above and the sight of a chick pokemon coming to a halt beside the Pikachu, hanging his head down and panting answered his question. "Oh, that's we."

 

"Would it... have... killed you to... slow down... just a little... bit?" The Torchic asked in between breaths.

 

"Sorry." The Pikachu apologized, his ears flattened against the top of his head in embarrassment. He blushed with a wry smile on his face. "I was sure you were right behind me. Guess I should make sure next time, huh?"

 

The Torchic just gave him a look that answered his obvious question.

 

Pikachu turned his head back down to Caterpie. "So anyway, what do you say we get you out of here, kiddo? Your mom's waiting for you outside of the woods."

 

Caterpie's eyes grew wider and began to sparkle with amazement. "Wow, are you guys a rescue team? I've always wanted to meet one of those!"

 

Pikachu's friendly smile turned into the same nervous one he had a few seconds ago. "Well, you see, we're not exactly an official rescue team. We were just sent by your mom to come and rescue you. Sorry."

 

"Oh." Caterpie replied, rather disappointed. On the bright side, at least his mother was waiting for him and someone was coming to his rescue. Still, it would have been really neat to be saved by a rescue team.

 

"Okay." He said, lifting his spirits.

 

"Um, can you get out of there?" Pikachu asked him.

 

Caterpie looked at the sides of the pit. He had tried to climb out by himself when he first fell in, and had tried multiple times after that, but he never prevailed. Though, there was a slope at the front side of the pit. One that he had strived to get up, but still never reached his goal. But after multiple attempts at escaping the ditch and tumbling down the slope repeatedly, Caterpie was hoping he had cleared some of the stones that were causing him to lose his grip. Especially after his experience with prying dirt and dried mud that ended up getting stuck to him off. _"I guess I could give it another try."_  He mused to himself.

 

"I can try." He answered.

 

"Alright then. You try, and if you can't do it, I'll come down there and get you." Pikachu told him comfortingly. His sweet behaviour somehow interested Ginji. He was more than willing to let the little guy try things for himself and build up confidence. Even though he had never met the kid. In a way, he admired his "never give up" attitude. There was something there that was kind of likeable about him. Whether he was playfully snarking or awkwardly smiling and chuckling. Ginji hated to admit it, but this Pokemon's nature was starting to grow on him. _"I suppose I could get used to being a pokemon."_  Ginji thought to himself.

 

He broke out of his thoughts to focus on Caterpie. The tiny caterpillar-like pokemon had started slithering his body up the slope. Ginji noticed he did it slowly, and didn't seem to care about the dirt and rock dust that was underneath his belly. His end was sticking up in the air, as if it was urging him on, just as determined as him to escape from the ditch. As Caterpie was working his way up, Ginji noticed a tiny drop of sweat dripping down his face. Ginji found this odd. Could bug type Pokémon even sweat? Apparently. He didn't dwell on the fact for long. He was going to be prepared for discovering things about Pokémon he never suspected he would ever find out had he not become one.

 

Caterpie was half-way there when a tiny rock gave way underneath him, causing him to tumble backwards all the way down to the bottom of the slope. He lay on his side for a second, then got up and dusted himself off with his tail end. To Ginji and Pikachu's relief, he didn't appear to be injured. Maybe a few scrapes here and there, but other than that, he was in one piece. Pikachu got down on all fours, and stuck his head over the edge of the pit.

 

"You ok, Caterpie?" He called down with concern to the little bug. Ginji supposed Pikachu wasn't 100% sure he was fine, and wanted to be.

 

"Yeah, I think I'm alright." Caterpie responded while picking the last bits of dirt out of his fuzz. He wiggled his body in order to get rid of any extra small specks that were left.

 

"I don't know if I can do it though."

 

"C'mon, try again!" Pikachu encouraged.

 

Caterpie nodded and doing as he was encouraged to do, fixed his eyes back on the slope and started to crawl up it once again. He tried not to let the dirt latching itself onto his slippery belly bother him too much. But that was hard to ignore when you had to heave your tiny, thin body onward and you could feel that dirt pressing against you each time you moved.

 

Ginji stared at Caterpie intently as he struggled up the slope. He could see the poor little guy was getting exhausted, and if he were to make a wrong move, the odds of getting out by himself would be zero to none. At this point it was necessary that someone go down and get him.

 

"Pikachu, you might want to go and help him." Ginji suggested.

 

"You sure?"

 

"Yeah, I mean, it's better to fetch him while he's halfway up then having to go all the way down there and work your way back up here. Also, you seem to be good with kids. I think Caterpie will get the support he needs if you're there talking him through it. It'll be easier for him."

 

Pikachu was taken aback by Ginji's statement last statement. Sure, he'd been good with his younger peers before, but never had he been told that he was a main source of encouragement and support for one of them. It wasn't as if he saw himself as a mentor or anything of the sort. And to be told this by a Torchic he had know for a grand total of an hour and a half who seemed like he barely knew the difference between an ember attack and a flamethrower, and who he had been confused by and thought was weird and a bit irritating before was if anything, miraculous. Granted, he didn't exactly have a legitimate reason to go along with every single thing Ginji said yet, but if the little chick pokemon could fend off a decent amount of Sunkern as his first battling experience, then Pikachu couldn't see why he wasn't capable of picking others to do slight tasks based on shades of their personality.

 

"Alright then. I guess you can be on the lookout then?" Pikachu suggested.

 

"Lookout? Do we really need a lookout in a small, harmless clearing that has lots of tall trees surrounding it?" Ginji questioned while shooting quick glances at the overlooking trees and the sky as if to prove to the mouse pokemon that the place was completely clear.

 

"I just thought of it off the top of my head, okay?" Pikachu snapped. "Just in case. You never know. I mean, wasn't it wild Pokémon that chased off Butterfree? Need I remind you of the fact that another fissure may open up in the ground when you least suspect it with all the natural disasters that have been happening?"

 

Ginji opened his mouth to retort, but he had nothing. He had lost this game of "comebacks and excuses" to Pikachu. And he had to admit, the mouse was pretty darn good at it.

 

"Besides, it's all I can think of for you to do right now." the electric rodent smiled at him and shrugged his shoulders before scurrying down the slope on all fours.

 

"Well, excuse me for being such a burden to you." Ginji murmured.

 

Pikachu scrambled down the slanted wall as if it was a grassy hill; having four paws that were made to clutch onto things complete with pointed fingers to tighten your grip, and being taller and faster definitely came in handy when making your way up and down angled walls. Caterpie was only halfway down, and it wasn't a long way fully down; so the fact that the tiny pebbles and flecks of dirt that were latching onto the bottom of his paws might make him lose his balance and fall didn't bother him. Before he knew it, he was right next to the young caterpillar pokemon. Caterpie looked at Pikachu with large, wide, innocent eyes that never seemed to wander anywhere; solely focusing on the eyes of whom the little bug was closest to.

 

Pikachu pulled himself into a cat esque position; his body flattened against the dusty wall, stubby arms stretched out in front of him, head and ears tucked in between them, and back arched down a bit with his tail slanted downwards on an angle against the slope.

 

"Climb on my back." Pikachu instructed. He flicked his ear for a little more emphasis.

 

Caterpie was quick to shake his head and say; " I still want to try getting out of here on my own".

 

_"Tough kid."_  Pikachu thought. After all the countless attempts at trying to make it out of the ditch and back to his mother, he still wasn't going to give in, despite his exhaustion starting to get the best of him. As excitable and eager as most little kids were, it wasn't everyday you found one so strong and intent as this one was. He had guts and that was a fact.

 

Pikachu could only close his eyes and let his mouth calmly fall open in order to let out a sigh, albeit a friendly one as he was still smiling. His eyes grew sharp as he once again opened them. There was a spark of courage in them, which was made more visible by the now setting sun reflecting off of them. He closed his mouth, forming a smile to match Caterpie's determined expression. With a small nod, He shot his ears back up, one sticking in the air while the other one was pointed doggedly backwards.

 

"Alright then. But how about this? I'll be right beside you in case you need some help. If you get tired, just let me know, okay?" Pikachu suggested, acknowledging the young Pokémon's weariness.

 

It seemed like a fair enough deal to Caterpie.

 

"Okay." He agreed.

 

He started slithering his way up the slope, thoroughly pulling the front half is his petite body forward, and then dragging the bottom half behind him. Pikachu watched him attentively, studying the way he moved his body. Pikachu tried to imagine what it would be like to get around without legs. He simply couldn't. The thought seemed to unreal and bizarre to him. Perhaps it was a feeling only a dozen bug type Pokémon would ever know about, and that was probably the way it should stay. For a brief moment Pikachu considered asking Caterpie about it, but briskly pushed the question back into the midst of his mind. It was best not to ask the kid such an out of nowhere type question. Especially when he was salvaging his strength for getting out of this fissure.

 

"Hey, Mister?" Caterpie asked all of a sudden, breaking the silence between them.

 

"Yeah?" Pikachu answered, finding himself yet again staring into those big, innocent eyes.

 

"How can you run down and walk right back up the side of the hole without any problems?"

 

Pikachu smiled to himself at Caterpie's coincidental question.

 

_"Maybe it's not such a bad time to ask him after all."_

 

"You know something little guy, I was actually wondering how you can get around without walking."

 

Caterpie shrugged.

 

"I've known how to do it all my life, I guess. It's pretty easy. You just crawl. Like this."

 

He continued to move up the slope the same way Pikachu had been watching him only moments ago. No later then when he had demonstrated the way he moved did he lose his grip on the wall again, and started to tumble back down. That's when Pikachu flicked his tail into an aligned position(bar the zig-zagged parts of it) right in front of Caterpie's rolling form. The little caterpillar came to a gentle halt thanks to Pikachu's tail. After a couple seconds of being in a curled form, Caterpie got up and shook himself off a bit. Two large bug eyes met with two smaller, dotted ones belonging to the older Pokémon.

 

"Pikachu?" A small voice asked.

 

"Yeah, kiddo?"

 

"Would it be alright if I rode on your back for the rest of the way up? I'm actually getting kind of tired." Caterpie brushed the end of his tail on the dirt slope sheepishly.

 

Pikachu nodded undoubtedly. "Of course! After all, I was the one who offered to carry you out in the first place."

 

Pikachu once again pulled his body into the same position he had before when he first offered Caterpie a ride. Pikachu tried to ignore the feel of a fuzzy underbelly rubbing against his fur and skin as the small bug slithered onto his back. What Pikachu knew he should be concerned about was if Caterpie could hold on tightly enough. Granted, the top of the slope wasn't that far away, but still.

 

"You ready?" Pikachu called over his shoulder to be sure.

 

"Yep!" Caterpie answered confidently.

 

"Alright. Hold on tight!"

 

Once Pikachu was certain the bug type had a firm grip on his back, he rose to his feet and darted up the slope on all fours. He would have slowed down a bit or at least check every so often to make sure Caterpie was still hanging on without any trouble, but the young Pokemon's laughter confirmed that he wasn't making any mistakes. Pikachu's paws pattered against the slope, flicking some dirt dust in his face. He quickly blinked it out of his eyes, and bent his ears backwards to help clear some of the dust. Caterpie didn't seem to mind it as he continued to laugh and shout, clearly enjoying himself. Courtesy of the specks of dirt in the corner of his eyes, he felt a wave of relief wash over him when he tripped on the edge of the ditch opening, causing him to fly forward onto the grass. And never before had Pikachu imagined he would have been so happy to have the honor of his face being planted against the ground. The electric mouse pulled his head away from what he had collided with, and Shook his head left and right to get the dirt(and grass) out of his face. It took him less than a heartbeat to realize that Caterpie was no longer on board his back. Of course he wasn't!

 

"Caterpie!" He called looking around the clearing. "You alright? Where are you?"

 

"I'm right here."

 

The small voice whom startled Pikachu caused him to jump up and yelp, only to come back down and once again collide with the earth, only this time landing on his backside.

 

"I couldn't have bounced THAT far you know. You okay, Mister?" Caterpie loomed over Pikachu's face, his eyes wide and innocent as always.

 

"Yeah. My back is throbbing, my heart is pounding, my eyes are stinging, and I think I might still have a piece of dirt in one of them. But other than that, I'm just fine." The mouse picked himself up off the ground and stretched his body, hoping to ease the slight pain in his back. Before continuing to do anything else to fix himself, he turned his attention back to Caterpie.

 

"Kid, don't scare me like that!"

 

"Sorry, Mister. But like I said, I couldn't have bounced far away from you at all. It's a small meadow."

 

Pikachu either sighed and rolled his eyes over the fact that Caterpie had called the clearing a meadow rather than the former; or his own giddiness. He really did underestimate the kid. "You're right. Sorry. I just got a little bit too worked-up there."

 

"It's okay." The caterpillar Pokémon's eyes abruptly turned sparkly. "You were so cool!" He proceeded to rub against Pikachu's body.

 

Pikachu blushed until his cheeks were a crimson colour. He let out another one of his embarrassed laughs. "Heh, heh. It was nothing really. In fact, you were the one that was so cool."

 

Caterpie's eyes all of a sudden sunk. "No I wasn't. I needed you to carry me out the rest of the way."

 

Pikachu patted the younger Pokémon's head. "Yeah, but you showed a lot of bravery and determination down there. You were ready to try getting out all by yourself. And I can't say that for a lot of kids your age."

 

"What's deter-min-a-tion?" The young bug asked with those heart melting wide eyes.

 

"Well, it's… um, it's kind of like… you're…" How exactly do you explain the meaning of the word to a little kid like Caterpie? "You've decided on something and you see it through till the very end. Make sense?"

 

"I guess so." Caterpie nodded.

 

"If not you'll figure it out someday." Pikachu told him, knowing he most likely didn't understand. He was just glad Ginji wasn't around to witness this...

 

_"Ginji! Where is he?_ " Pikachu thought.

 

"Ginji! Where are you? Ginji! Augh!"

 

Pikachu smacked one paw against his forehead. "I ask him to do one thing! And he does this instead! I honestly wouldn't be surprised if…

 

"Pikachu! We gotta get out of here now! I think I heard a noise coming from below my feet!" An all too familiar young voice shouted so fast you'd think the woods were on fire-or flooding in Ginji's case.

 

"There you are! I was just going to say that I wouldn't be surprised if you hit your head on a tree and developed amnesia yet again." Pikachu faked staring off into space and thinking. "Aww, now that I think about it, I wished that happened."

 

"Oh, you're a riot." Ginji remarked. "You know, I'd love to stay here and argue with you but I'd love to not be swallowed by a much bigger fissure than the one Caterpie was in even more. Which by the way is entirely possible unless we run for our lives like, I don't know…" Ginji pretended to estimate the time they had. "Now!"

 

That's when the ground rumbled beneath the trio's feet and the cracking noise in the distance started growing louder and clearer, fast. As if it was getting rapidly closer each second. Now Pikachu knew why Ginji bursted into the clearing screaming like a pack of feral Poochyena.

 

"Sound like a good idea to you?" Ginji asked.

 

Pikachu shifted his eyes to Ginji, dropped them, and and his mouth turned into a grin that was clearly not a grin of happiness or relief. "Oh yes, I like that idea very much. I think it's actually the best one you've had today."

 

Pikachu scooped Caterpie up in his arms and without a second thought, placed him on his back, and made a mad dash for it on all fours with Ginji sprinting behind them, this time keeping up!

* * *

 

Butterfree was alerted from her worried thoughts by the sound of twigs cracking on the ground and bushes rustling which only increased until she saw three figures pop out of the trees and into the clearing. One of which was small, green, fuzzy, and immediately went flying off the back of a yellow mouse she had met earlier. The caterpillar landed a few feet in front of the mouse and went into a curled position, eyes shut, breathing quickly and loudly. His two companions were now sprawled across the grass not too far behind him.

 

"Caterpie!" Butterfree cried out to her son.

 

Caterpie was withdrawn from his cowering state by the sound of his mother's voice. He shifted his gaze to the middle of the clearing, where he was greeted by the sight of his mother fluttering towards him, an overjoyed smile on her face, and eyes wet with teardrops.

 

"Mama!" He called back, picking himself up off the ground and wriggling towards his mother as fast as his tiny body could handle. Before he knew it, he was snuggling his body against his mother's, his back becoming damp from her tears.

 

"Oh, thank the heavens." She sobbed.

 

It was only after a few short and sweet seconds of the mother/son reunion that Caterpie was gabbling about what had happened to him that afternoon.

 

"Mama, you'll never guess what happened after the big hole swallowed me! I was so scared at first and I tried to climb out but I couldn't no matter how hard I tried, but then Mr. Pikachu and Mr. Torchic came to rescue me and Pikachu helped me out of the hole, and then there was this huge earthquake and-"

 

"Caterpie! You had me worried sick about you for the past couple hours, the least you could do is slow down when you're speaking to me and let me know for sure if you're alright." Butterfree chided, her eyes drying up.

 

"Oh, I'm fine Mama. Thanks to Pikachu and Torchic."

 

He signified to his older companions whom had just finished getting off the ground and dusting themselves off and were now making their way towards the two bug types.

 

"Oh, I don't know how I can thank you two enough. I'm so happy my baby's safe." Butterfree exclaimed once Pikachu and Ginji had come to a stop in front of her and Caterpie.

 

"Mama!" Caterpie retorted. "I'm not a baby!"

 

"Well, a can of soda, a box of chocolates, and a flat screen T.V complete with every gaming system in existence would be nice. Oh yeah, and a couple band aids for the scrapes I got while in those woods as well as an apology for asking us of all Pokémon to go in there." Ginji jokingly remarked.

 

"Ginji!" Pikachu snapped, lightly swatting him over the head. "She's thanking us for saving her kid! Don't be a jerk!"

 

"Come on, I was only joking! I just wanted to see how she would react." Ginji explained in a haste. Pikachu just rolled his eyes and turned to face Butterfree, who now looked as confused as ever, but Pikachu still couldn't help but notice a glint of amusement in her big red eyes.

 

Caterpie managed to let out a small titter. "I do truly wish I could repay you properly."

 

"No, don't worry about it. It's OK, really." Pikachu told her with a smile. "We're just happy we were able to help." Pikachu thought about Caterpie for a second. "Though you should have seen how brave your little boy was. I'm certain you wouldn't have called him a baby then."

 

"See!" Caterpie stated to his mother. The next thing he did was turn to Pikachu with big sparkling eyes. "You were so cool, Pikachu. Just like a real rescue team!"

 

Pikachu felt yet another drop of sweat running down his face. Caterpie was indeed ever so adorable with those big sparkly eyes, that went without saying. But the way he looked at him and gushed over him with those adoring eyes full of childlike wonder and admiration was nothing short of a little embarrassing. He nudged Ginji.

 

"Um, Ginji?" He asked in a whisper.

 

"Yes?" Ginji whispered back, turning to face him.

 

"He's staring at me with those eyes. It's a little bit embarrassing. What do I do?

 

Ginji shrugged. "I dunno. You were the one who went into the fissure and made friends with him."

 

"Yeah, but-hey! That was your idea!" Pikachu chuckled and shoved Ginji playfully.

 

Ginji just smirked, dawning a cocky grin in his face. "Actually, it was yours. You were the one who first told Caterpie you'd come get him if he couldn't do it."

 

"I-" Pikachu opened his mouth but he had nothing. "You're right." Ginji had won this time around.

 

"You, you were the one who came with Pikachu to rescue me. I guess that's pretty cool too." Came a small, childish voice.

 

Ginji looked down only to find Caterpie staring at him with the same disgustingly cute stare he just gave Pikachu.

 

"Well, looks like I'm not alone here, huh?" Ginji could just feel Pikachu's smug grin from beside him.

 

"I guess not." Ginji grinned right back at him.

 

"But you know what?" Ginji though to himself while looking into Caterpie's eyes. "It's not so bad. It feels nice to be seen as a hero."

 

"Thank you so much Mister Pikachu." Caterpie said to Pikachu. "Oh. And you too, Mister Torchic." He added, acknowledging his other new friend.

 

"Uh, call me Ginji, alright?" He corrected the younger Pokémon.

 

"OK, Mister Ginji Sir."

 

"And you don't need to keep calling us 'mister', alright? We're your friends now. Just call us Pikachu and Ginji." Pikachu told him.

 

"Ok. Pikachu and Ginji. Got it." Caterpie nodded.

 

"Thank you so much, Pikachu and Ginji." Butterfree chimed. "With all these disasters happening, it's good to know that there are still helpful young Pokémon around. I still wish there was something I could do to thank you."

 

"Like I said before, don't worry about it." Pikachu told her again.

 

Butterfree seemed to ignore Pikachu or disregard what he had just said because from beneath her wing, she pulled out three berries.

 

"Please except these as a token of my thanks. It's the least I have to offer."

 

She gingerly placed the berries on the ground with her teeth.

 

"Berries?" Ginji asked.

 

"I know it's not much, but…"

 

"Thanks." Pikachu beamed, cutting her off.

 

He scooped the berries up in his paws and took a small bite out of the blue one. He broke the other two pieces in half, giving one to Ginji, and the other one to Caterpie.

 

"Thanks, Pikachu." The caterpillar said, popping the half he had received into his mouth.

 

Butterfree scanned the sky before looking down at her son from where she was fluttering in the air. "Alright then, Caterpie. It's getting late and it will be bedtime soon. It's time we started heading home."

 

"Aw, but Mama. I want to spend some more time with Pikachu and Ginji. I'm not sleepy anyway." Caterpie complained. "I'm too excited."

 

"Well, Mama's had a long day and so have you. You can see Pikachu and Ginji all the time during the day, I'm sure." She turned to look at the two young rescuers. "Once again, thank you very much. I hope you enjoy those nice berries." Once she had given her final thanks, she began flying off in the opposite direction of Tiny Woods.

 

Caterpie continued to look at Pikachu and Ginji with those big, wide eyes.

 

"You guys are really cool, even if you're not a real rescue team." Caterpie told them.

 

"Thanks, little guy." Pikachu gleamed. "Really means a lot."

 

"I can come and see you guys anytime I want, can't I?" He asked.

 

"Of course! We're around." He cocked his head towards Ginji, giving him an uncertain look. "Well, at least I am."

 

"Caterpie!" Butterfree's voice called from the distance.

 

"Coming Mama." Caterpie called back. "Gotta go." He told his two older friends just before crawling away to catch up with his mother.

 

"We'll see you later then." Ginji called to the small caterpillar.

 

"Be careful of those fissures, OK Caterpie?" Pikachu cautioned him.

 

"I will." Caterpie shouted back at him.

 

Once Caterpie was out of sight, Pikachu turned to look at Ginji who still hadn't touched his berry, instead prodding it with his foot, as if to examine it.

 

"I seriously doubt that berry is poisonous, Ginji." Pikachu teased.

 

"I never said it was. I'm just..making sure is all." Ginji retorted, still poking the berry, not looking up at Pikachu.

 

"Ok then." Pikachu shrugged. "They taste really good though."

 

Ginji simply nodded without saying anything else.

 

"Hey, Ginji?" Pikachu asked.

 

"Yeah?" Ginji answered, finally taking his eyes of the berry and fixing them on the electric rodent.

 

"You were pretty good out there. I'm impressed."

 

Ginji smiled. Although there was a slight hint of a smirk at the corner of his beak. "You weren't so bad either. You were really good with Caterpie. Even made friends with him."

 

"Yeah. Thanks for that comment about me being good with kids."

 

"Anytime."

 

"Um, Ginji? Do you have any plans?

 

"Plans? What sort of plans?"

 

"Well, you do seem to have amnesia of some sort."

 

"No. That's not it." Ginji shook his head briskly. "I was probably just tired and confused. Yeah. That's it."

 

"Well, can you remember anything else besides your name?"

 

Ginji thought for a moment. He tried remembering something-anything about himself. Even the smallest details. Nothing came up. His mind was completely blank. _"I don't remember anything! But why? This is really strange. I can remember my name, the things and ways of humans, and the fact that I was once one myself but, why not anything else? And why am I a Pokémon now? This is all so confusing."_

 

"Ginji? Ginji? Ginji!"

 

Ginji was yanked from his trance by the sound of Pikachu's voice. The mouse's paw was inches away from his face, waving in front of it.

 

"What?"

 

"You OK? You kind of zoned out there."

 

"Yeah. I'm fine." Ginji lied.

 

"So did you remember anything?"

 

"Nope." Ginji shook his head. "Nothing."

 

"That's too bad."

 

"Maybe I'll remember eventually." Ginji said hopefully. _"I mean, I'm a human kid. There can't be that much in my life I_   _forgot_." Ginji reassured himself.

 

Pikachu nodded. "Maybe. Do you have any place to stay?"

 

Ginji became stunned, and left with nothing to say as this question came out of nowhere. He managed to get a: "No. Of course I don't." out of his mouth.

 

"Well, I suppose I can't really leave you out here with nowhere to go. Why don't you come with me?"

 

"With you?"

 

"If you want to, that is." Pikachu quickly stated, obviously not wanting to make Ginji feel like he was pressured into coming.

 

"Actually, may as well." Ginji agreed after he thought it over for a few seconds. " _Pikachu seems like a cool guy. And after today I could get used to him. Couldn't hurt to go with him for now. Besides, it's my only other option_." "But only because I don't have anywhere else to go or know anybody else around… wherever here is."

 

Pikachu gave him a quick nod. "Alright then, follow me." He started to lead on, before stopping and looking down at Ginji's feet, where the piece of the blue berry still lay. "And eat that bit of the oran berry already. I promise you it's really tasty."

 

"Oh, right." Ginji was reminded of the reward he was previously poking and prodding at. He picked it up with his beak, and started slowly chewing it.

 

"Hey, Ginji?" Pikachu asked him.

 

"Yeah." Ginji answered with his mouth full of berry, spitting out some berry juice as he did so.

 

"I never got around to asking you this but, what exactly is a flat screen T.V and a gaming system?"

 

Ginji almost choked on his berry. He had a lot of things to explain.

* * *

 

"Sounds pretty pointless to me. Why stare at things moving and stuff happening in front of you when you can go out and do stuff yourself?" Pikachu asked him after a long and difficult explanation of gaming, television, and film.

 

"I dunno. It's entertainment, alright?"

 

"Then you must have had some pretty weird ways of entertaining yourself before waking up near Tiny Woods." Pikachu laughed.

 

"I didn't really expect you to understand. By the way, you were right. That oran berry was really good."

 

"See? What'd I tell you?" Pikachu smiled at him.

 

"It kind of tastes like a mixture of blueberry juice and grapes. Not like any berry I've ever had before."

 

"Really? Have you never actually tasted one before? Or had you just forgotten what berries taste like as well?"

 

"No, I'm pretty sure we don't get these where I come from."

 

"Wow. You really are weird."

 

Ginji probably would have said something back, if not for the fact that a small, wooden hut was now standing in front of him. The hut wasn't the only thing that stood out though. Surrounding it were two small hedges on either side of the hut-or at least on either side in front of the hut- a grassy area acting out as a little yard where the hut itself was built on, a stone path leading to the entrance of the hut, a flag with a stump underneath it just in the far left corner of the area, and a single mailbox next to the stone path, just at the front of the area the hedge was surrounding.

 

"Well, here we are. What do you think?" Pikachu asked him with a hint of nervousness in his voice.

 

Ginji walked up the stone path and into the house itself without answering Pikachu. The interior was nothing more or less then what Ginji expected from a small hut like this one. The hut itself was round, and there was a small, square window on each angle of the wall bar the back wall. The window there was fairly large. The place was decorated with what looked like sunflowers and buttercups, with some leaves hanging from the ceiling. There was a big stump on the left side of the room, with a smaller one accompanying it. The right side of the room had a nest which seemed to be made of hay and straw. There was a bigger nest underneath the large window which looked to be made of the same materials. It wasn't what one would call a great living space at all, but Ginji didn't care. If anything, he actually liked it here. He couldn't explain why, but he did. It sort of gave off a homey feel.

 

" _Why am I feeling this way?"_  He curiously thought to himself as he continued to observe the room. " _It's so small and crummy looking but, I think it's nice."_

 

Not even the sound of Pikachu skidding to a halt in the entrance could take his mind off the emotion he felt from being in the hut.

 

"It's not much, but-" The mouse began before being interrupted by Ginji.

 

"It's cool!"

 

Pikachu widened his eyes in amazement at Ginji's comment. "You really like it?" He asked bewilderedly.

 

"I love it!" Ginji exclaimed. "I don't know why, but I do!" He started bouncing from one part of the room to another.

 

"That's good." Pikachu sighed with relief. "With the grouchy attitude you gave off today, I was afraid you'd think otherwise." He expected Ginji to snap at him with a comeback, but strangely enough, the Torchic said nothing. He was still bounding around the place with an endless amount of energy. It was then he noticed the small chick Pokémon's tiny tail feathers flaring with excitement. "Wow. You must really love it here! Your tail's wagging!"

 

That caught Ginji's attention. He looked over his back to notice a small, orange tuft of fur flailing from side to side.

 

"Hey! Stop it!" He yelled pathetically at his tail as if it could hear him. "It's not supposed to do this!" He explained to Pikachu in a feeble attempt.

 

Pikach laughed. "You're pretty funny Ginji. In a weird sort of way."

 

_"So this is what if feels like to wag your tail."_  Ginji mused to himself. " _It must be a Pokémon instinct. Maybe I'm feeling this happy because I'm a Torchic."_

 

"So this is where you live, huh?" Ginji wondered aloud to Pikachu.

 

"Yep." Pikachu confirmed. "This is my home."

 

"So, about these natural disasters like the fissure Caterpie fell in…" Ginji started to ask, hoping to get more information on the subject.

 

"There have been lots of those happening lately." Pikachu answered immediatly, obviously having a broader knowledge on this stuff. "Luckily we have lots of strong rescue teams investigating and doing all they can about them. Of course none of the teams have exactly figured out what's causing the disasters, but I'm sure some team is bound to find something soon enough."

 

Ginji nodded, trying to take in all of what was just told to him. He thought to ask a question about something Pikachu had mentioned in his sentence.

 

"What's a rescue team?"

 

Pikachu gasped in shock. "You really don't know? Man, your amnesia might be worse then I thought. You're probably the only Pokémon around here who doesn't know a thing about what's going on."

 

"Maybe that's because I'm not a Pokémon at all! I told you I was a human when you woke me up, remember?" Ginji took another try at getting Pikachu to believe him.

 

"Sure. And I'm a Wingull. Are you sure you're alright, Ginji?"

 

"You really don't believe me, do you?" Ginji hung his head in annoyance.

 

Pikachu ignored him. "Listen Ginji. The reason I came here is because of these tough times. I want to help Pokémon in need. And rescuing Caterpie today was just the motivation I needed. Not to mention the way the little guy's face lit up when we reunited him with his mother. It just felt really good, ya know?"

 

"Oh yeah. Sure was nice to be worshipped by a cutesy little kid."

 

"I'm serious!"

 

"I never said you weren't."

 

Pikachu continued, dismissing Ginji's sass. "I want to help change things so that all the Pokémon can live in peace. And I really like how you handled yourself when we rescued Caterpie."

 

"Thank you." Ginji puffed out his chest. "Was nothing really."

 

Pikachu grinned at Ginji's deliberate smugness. "You and I make a good team, Ginji. So I need to ask a big favour of you."

 

"Ask away." Ginji still held his tough pose.

 

"I know you don't know what a rescue team is but, would you form one with me?"

 

Ginji broke out of his pose and looked Pikachu straight in the eye.

 

"You want me to form a team with you?"

 

"Yes. I can teach you the ropes and what being in a rescue team is all about. It'll be just like today, except we'll be doing different things, rescuing other Pokémon, and exploring new places. With the two of us working together, I think we could become a great gold rank rescue team. Maybe even one of the best teams in the world someday. How about it?"

 

"I dunno, I mean, sure it was nice to be a hero, and sure I was pretty cool out there, but-"

 

"Just you?"

 

"Ok, WE were pretty cool out there, but going through one of those mystery dungeons was quite enough of the experience, and I need to find out what happened to me and why I can't remember anything."

 

"And how exactly do you plan on doing that, Ginji?" Pikachu questioned him.

 

"Well, I..um.. I don't know." Ginji shrugged with his head hung low.

 

"Look, you stick with me, and… I know! Maybe I can help you with your amnesia!"

 

"Really?" Ginji's face brightened up.

 

"Yeah. Besides, I'm really the only Pokémon who can help you right now, when you get down on it."

 

"Oh, you are, are you?" Ginji snorted.

 

"Yes. I am. Trust me! I'm the only one you know."

 

"Yeah, since this morning."

 

"Ginji, please! I know that the two of us can do great things together and make other Pokémon happy. Just think of that little Caterpie."

 

Ginji stared into Pikachu's eyes, which were very much begging him just as much as Pikachu himself was.

 

_"You know what? That little Caterpie did make me feel pretty special. And Pikachu really does seem cool. Today was pretty fun and new to me. It couldn't hurt to go on more adventures with him. Who knows? I may find out more about who I am."_

 

Ginji gave in. "Ok, Pikachu. I'll form one of these rescue teams with you."

 

"Yes! Thank you! Thank you so much!" Pikachu scurried around in a circle like a dog chasing its tail. This'll be perfect!"

 

"But you have to promise you'll help me." Ginji reminded him, a bit sorry to have to spoil his fun.

 

"I promise." Pikachu smiled at him, more than happy to make that promise.

 

"Cross your heart?"

 

"Hope to die." Pikachu finished.

 

Ginji smiled back at him. "Then it's settled. We are now a rescue team. Whatever that is."

 

"And from this moment on, we're partners as well."

 

Pikachu held out his paw to Ginji.

 

Ginji lifted his foot to Pikachu's paw. "Partners." The two locked paw and foot respectively, shaking them.

 

"So, I assume a rescue team is a team that helps Pokémon in need." Ginji asked after he and Pikachu let go of one another.

 

"Something like that, yeah." Pikachu answered.

 

"Alright. Shouldn't be too hard."

 

"We'll need a team name by the way." Pikachu told Ginji.

 

"And you're pinning this all on me?"

 

"No. I just thought you might have some neat ideas for a team name."

 

"Alright then. How about team Barbeque?"

 

"Ginji! That's not a reminder of what I accidentally did to you in Tiny Woods, is it?" Pikachu joked.

 

"It was just a suggestion. And a joke. And yeah, that too."

 

"Let's think of something that really stands out. Something meaningful."

 

"And Barbeque's not meaningful given our types and looks?"

 

Pikachu gave him a playful smirk.

 

"Joking."

 

"C'mon, actually think of a good one."

 

"Ok, ok, I can only think so hard." Ginji said.

 

The duo proceeded to think about the name that would define their team.

 

_"How can something so simple as a team name be so hard to come up with?"_  Ginji thought with frustration. He hacked his brain trying to come up with something, anything that would be half decent.

 

_"Got it!"_  He silently exclaimed to himself as soon as he had come up with something. Before he could suggest it to Pikachu, he pondered a bit on the name idea.  _"No, it's too cliché."_  He started to think of something else but quickly reconsidered. _"But then again, so's this whole rescue team concept_."

 

"Hey, what about Team Heroes?"

 

"Team Heroes?"

 

"Yeah. I know it's a bit cheesy but, Caterpie views us as heroes and you pretty much said we could become exactly those someday."

 

"Yeah. I guess I did. And it is kind of cool to be seen as heroes by someone. In a way, we'd kind of be doing it for Caterpie."

 

"When you put it like that, yeah. We would." Ginji willingly agreed.

 

"It suits a rescue team as well." Pikachu added.

 

"Then it's agreed!" Ginji proclaimed. "From this moment on, we are team Heroes!"

 

"Good to have you on board, Ginji." Pikachu smiled at him.

 

"Great to be on board."

 

"We start tomorrow, so let's do our best. Shake on it?"

 

"Shake on it." Ginji's foot met with Pikachu's paw once again.

 

_"I may not know why I'm a Pokémon, how I became one, or even who I am, but as long as I am one, well, someone's got to look out for Pikachu, and I hate to admit it but, someone's got to look out for me as well."_

 

Ginji and Pikachu's eyes locked on one another, both eager and prompt. Their career as a rescue team had officially begun.

* * *

**So that was the first chapter of Book One in this multiple part Mystery Dungeon Series. A bit cheesy I know, but hey, it's Pokémon. I look forward to writing this and hopefully improving as I go along.**


	2. Thunderwave Cave Shockwave

  


* * *

 

Ginji slowly awoke from his slumber, the warm sunlight shining down on his furry face. He half expected to find himself in a room of some sort, on a normal bed, in the world inhabited by humans, his hair messy and full of bedhead, crust in the corners of his eyes. Well, the last two expectations were a reality. He stood up, trying to ignore the pieces of hay and straw that had become entangled with his feathers, and shook himself off. Natural Torchic instinct, he assumed. He gave the place he was in a quick inspection, just to be sure he was still in the Pokémon world. No mistaking, this was indeed the small hut Pikachu had brought him to. He finally checked his body. Still fire orange, small, and fluffy.

 

_"Guess it wasn't a dream after all. I really am a Torchic."_

 

He finished getting up by grooming himself with his foot and beak, untangling the knots in his feathers as well as flattening the tufts of fur sticking out.

 

_"But why would I be transformed into a Pokémon?"_  He silently asked himself.  _"I don't understand this at all."_

 

"Hey, Pikachu." He called to his new companion in an attempt to wake him, expecting him to be sleeping in the large nest underneath the giant window. No one.

 

"Might as well go look for him. We made a promise. He can't bail on me."

 

He headed towards the hut's entrance.

 

"OK, Pikachu. I'm awake and outside so if you don't-"

 

Next thing he knew, he landed face first on the stone path, the feathers on said face a mess again. He heard a yelp from behind him, revealing the source of his tumble. He looked over his shoulder. Sure enough, standing on all fours in a panicky position was Pikachu. His ears were twitching away and his head frantically looking from side to side.

 

"Calm down. It's just me. I figured you were jumpy but I never knew you were this jumpy." Ginji told him.

 

"Sorry." Pikachu apologized in a quick breath. "Did I trip you?"

 

"I don't know. Why don't you ask my behind?" Ginji deadpanned.

 

"Well, don't startle me like that next time."

 

"You were the one who fell asleep out here in the first place." Ginji pointed out while he picked himself up off the ground. "What were you doing sleeping out here anyway?" He asked, dusting himself off.

 

"I went to the Pokémon Square to register our team."

 

"Register our team?"

 

"Yeah. All new teams have to be registered to be official." Pikachu explained.

 

"And that made you fall asleep out here, how?"

 

"The stars were really pretty last night. I like to star gaze every once in a while. Sometimes I doze off while looking at them. I like to count them you know?"

 

"Kind of like counting sheep, huh?"

 

"Sheep?"

 

"Nevermind." Ginji shook his head.

 

"Do you ever star gaze?"

 

"Maybe I did once or twice when I was younger."

 

Pikachu nodded. "You should join me sometime. It's really peaceful and relaxing."

 

"Yeah. Maybe sometime." Ginji swiftly answered, becoming a bit uninterested in the conversation. Seemed a bit boring to stare at the sky and a bunch of stars.  _"I mean, you see them every night."_

 

"Well, I guess today marks the start of our rescue team?" Ginji asked, hoping to change the subject.

 

That yanked Pikachu out of his star gazing thoughts.

 

"It sure does!"

 

"Alright then. So how exactly does this work?"

 

Pikachu got another one of those nervous looks on his face, complete with small chuckle.

 

"Heh heh. You see, to go on rescue missions, you need to take a job or be specifically asked by someone to go on a certain mission."

 

"And?"

 

"We are a new team so, no one's heard of us yet. There's nothing for us."

 

"Oh." Ginji sighed, more annoyed and confused than disappointed.

 

"At least there's no rescue requests for us yet. We should, however, receive something else."

 

Pikachu darted over to the mailbox, pulling the handle, and taking a package of some kind out of the now open door.

 

"A box?" Ginji asked.

 

"Yes! I knew it would be in here! It's the rescue team starter set!" Pikachu had spades of excitement in his voice. He hugged the box to his chest.

 

"Rescue team starter set?"

 

"They always give you one when you start a new team." Pikachu explained enthusiastically. He brought the package away from his chest, placing it on the ground. He opened the top of the box, and started to rummage through the items it contained. Ginji came over to loom over the box as well. Inside was a yellow toolbox, an issue of a paper called 'The Pokémon News', and two badges.

 

"Badges? Sweet!" Ginji exclaimed as he grabbed one of them with his foot.

 

"Those are our rescue team badges." Pikachu told him. "They show that we are an official rescue team."

 

"They're cool!" Ginji couldn't stop admiring his badge.

 

"You think those are cool, wait until you see the gold rank ones."

 

"Gold rank?"

 

"Yep. There's normal rank, bronze rank, silver rank, and gold rank. Of course we're just normal rank right now, but as we get stronger and more well known, our rank will climb higher. Someday we'll make it to gold. That's the highest. How cool is that?"

 

Before Ginji could reply, Pikachu was already yacking on about the next item. "This is our toolbox. We can carry the items we find in dungeons with this! Oh, that reminds me!" He grabbed the berries that Butterfree had given them the day before and tossed them in the box.

 

" _A toolbox can in fact carry items? Wow, now isn't that something?"_  Ginji snarked to himself, not wanting to spoil Pikachu's fun.

 

"And I think The Pokémon News speaks for itself. I'll just put in the mailbox and maybe we can read it later." He slipped the paper through the small flap on the side of the mailbox, causing a clunking noise to be heard from inside the box.

 

"Is that all?" Ginji asked, still eyeing his rescue badge intently.

 

"Hold on." Pikachu looked through the door to confirm that it was. Nothing but the paper he had just slipped in, and the blue paint on the metal that looked much more like a darker shade of blue from the inside of the box. "Yep. That's it." He told Ginji, shutting the door.

 

"Thank goodness for that." Ginji heaved a sigh of relief. "I was afraid you'd never calm down."

 

"Hey, I'm just excited."

 

"So I figured."

 

"Hey Ginji! If we get really strong we could even evolve! You could be a Blaziken!"

 

This caused Ginji to drop his rescue badge and lock himself in his thoughts.  _"Is he implying that I'm going to stay here with him? I can't. I mean, I'm sure I have a real life and people who miss me right now. Friends and family. Although, being a Blaziken would be pretty awesome. Oh no. No. I can't become to used to being a Pokémon. I'm a human. I belong in the human world. There's got to be a way to go back somehow. I have to remember who I am sooner or later!"_

 

The sound of heavy flapping overhead snapped Ginji out of his racing thoughts. Both him and Pikachu looked up. Right above them was a seagull like Pokémon. It was carrying what looked like mail in its mouth(which happened to be a huge bill none the less).

 

"It's Pelliper!" Pikachu shouted.

 

The gull didn't answer. He just flew down, perched himself on top of the mailbox and popped the mail he was carrying into the small slot. "Mail delivery for team Heroes." He said loudly before taking off, the sound of heavy flapping accompanying his flight.

 

"Well, that was interesting." Ginji managed to say.

 

"That was Pelliper. He's the delivery Pokémon."

 

"Fun."

 

"Hey! Maybe it's a rescue job offer. Let's check it out!" Pikachu rushed back towards the mailbox, opening it up again. He reached his paw inside the box, praying that today would be their first real rescue mission.

 

"Well?" Ginji heckled at him.

 

"Just a minute." He snatched the envelope from the box, carefully peeling it open with his tiny fingers. He took out the slip of paper contained in the envelope, and scanned it over. His eyes lit up with excitement, and that signified to Ginji that something good was about to happen today.

 

"Ginji! Come read this!"

 

Ginji walked over to Pikachu until he was standing over the mouse's shoulder, and did as he was told.

 

"BZZ BZZ. PIKACHU AND GINJI RIGHT? WE HEARD ABOUT YOU FROM CATERPIE."

 

"Caterpie! Aww, the little guy really does love us." Pikachu gushed.

 

"Shhh."

 

"WE NEED YOUR HELP. MAGNEMITE AND MAGNEMITE ARE IN TROUBLE! A STRANGE ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE FLOWED THROUGH THUNDERWAVE CAVE AND MAGNEMITE AND MAGNEMITE STUCK TOGETHER. THAT ISN'T ENOUGH TO FORM A MAGNETON. THEY ARE STUCK ON THE FINAL FLOOR OF THUNDERWAVE CAVE AND NEED TO BE RESCUED. PLEASE! HELP THEM!

 

MAGNEMITE AND MAGNEMITE'S FRIENDS, MAGNEMITE AND MAGNEMITE."

 

"Geez, this must be urgent Pikachu! They wrote this letter in all caps!" Ginji joked.

 

"Ginji, this is serious. We need to go and pull them apart!"

 

"Kind of dark when you put it out of context but, OK. Let's go save these guys."

 

"That's the spirit. Well, the last thing you said is. Let's go! Off to Thunderwave Cave."

 

The twosome started making their way to their very first rescue mission.

* * *

 

 

Two magnets were waiting for them at either entrance of the cave.

 

"BZZ. THERE YOU ARE. BZZ." The one on the left side of the cave entrance greeted them with a robotic voice.

 

"WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU." The one on the right side said in an identical robotic voice.

 

"Yeah. Of course you have. We got your message." Ginji told them.

 

"OUR FRIENDS SHOULD BE ON THE BOTTOM FLOOR OF THE CAVE. PLEASE HELP THEM." One of them buzzed.

 

Pikachu and Ginji gave each other puzzled glances. They finally shrugged and nodded to one another.

 

"Alright then. Let's go Ginji." Pikachu gestured to his friend to follow him as he started entering the cave. Before he went any further, he turned back the the Magnemite, letting Ginji walk past him for a headstart. "I need to ask you something."

 

"ANYTHING." They said at the same time.

 

"Do you and your friends go by 'he' or 'they'?"

 

"WE AREN'T DEFINED BY GENDER. WE ARE MAGNEMITE. WE DO HOWEVER, USE 'THEY' TO ADRESS EACH OTHER."

 

"OK then. Easy enough. See you later. We'll have your friends out of here in no time."

 

"Pikachu! Are you coming or are you just going to stand there all day looking at rocks?" He heard a familiar voice echo to him from inside the cave.

 

"On my way!" Pikachu hurried to catch up with Ginji, hoisting the toolbox the chick Pokémon had made him carry over his shoulder as he did so.

* * *

 

 

"So this is Thunderwave Cave, huh?" Ginji peered at the walls. They seemed to be a pinkish color, giving the cave some amount of light. It was still pretty dark, but didn't quite give off that creepy feel that most caves did.

 

"Sure is. Perfect place for an electric type!"

 

"That's cool for you, but what about me?"

 

"Don't worry. It's fine for a fire type as well. We'll do great, I'm sure."

 

Ginji shrugged. "You say so."

 

It was less then five minutes before they turned a corner, only to come face to face with a Nidoran. Needless to say, this Nidoran did not look to happy.

 

"Uh, Pikachu? Nidoran are poison types."

 

"Yeah. I know. But we're not going to run from a fight, are we? We're rescuers."

 

"That's right. We are!" Ginji agreed with pride. "Let's prove a point to this Nidoran! Scratch!"

 

Ginji scraped his foot across the mammal's face, making the Nidoran cry out in pain and shake its head, its eyes closed tightly.

 

"Ginji! Wait!"

 

Ginji didn't hear Pikachu's cries. He scratched it again, making it cry out once more. He gave it a tiny peck and then another one. Just as he was about to deliver another blow, Pikachu tackled him to the ground, pinning him down. "Enough, Ginji!"

 

"Hey! What's the big idea? Get off me!" Ginji squirmed tightly beneath Pikachu's body, but the mouse Pokémon had a tight grasp on him. He watched from the corner of his eye as the Nidoran fearfully ran away.

 

"Ginji, that Nidoran was clearly hurt in some way. Either that or something was up with you. I mean, even the way you're putting up a fight in my grip right now!"

 

Ginji stopped dead at Pikachu's comment. He stopped struggling in the rodent's hold, and sighed. "Sorry Pikachu. I honestly don't know what came over me there. Must have been too pumped or something."

 

"Maybe. But you were never like this in Tiny Woods."

 

"I wasn't pumped there though. I feel more confident now."

 

"Still, you need to be careful. We're still beginners and you don't know any fire moves right now. Probably a good thing too. You could have done much worse to that poor Nidoran. It's no fair if your opponent is at a serious disadvantage. At least to me it's not."

 

Pikachu let Ginji up, still a bit uneasy. "That was ood, though. I never thought you would almost take down a Nidoran that easily at our rank. It might be you. You may want to think about that."

 

Ginji dismissed Pikachu's suggestion. "It's fine. I'm sure it was just me being too excited. I won't do anything like that again, I promise."

* * *

 

 

The pair were fairly silent for a while, finding an oran berry, sleep seed, blast seed, and making any Rattata shake in their skin by simply walking in the same direction as the tiny rats. Timid things, they were. They didn't say anything about what had occurred earlier. It wasn't really worth bringing up again. Like Ginji had said, it was probably just him being a bit too excited or overconfident. Ginji finally decided to break the silence.

 

"Pikachu, how much further?"

 

"We're about half way there now so it'll still be a little while. Why?"

 

"I'm getting kind of hungry."

 

"So am I. We didn't have anything to eat this morning, did we?"

 

"No, not that I can recall."

 

"I don't have anything to eat except berries, but I want to-"

 

"Perfect! Let's have that oran berry we found earlier."

 

"You didn't let me finish my sentence! I want to save these for a real emergency!"

 

"Pikachu, I'm starving! My stomach won't shut up!"

 

"Well, tell it it's going to have to make do for now, as is mine."

 

Ginji mumbled some things under his breath, kicking up stones and rock dust as they continued on. He didn't take his eyes off the cave floor, and all he could think about was how hungry he was…

 

"Ginji, look out!" Pikachu shouted.

 

Ginji only heard him mere seconds before a strong force collided with his back, sending him flying against the cave wall. After bashing against the hard stone, he dropped pathetically to the floor. He looked up with whatever strength he had to see his attacker. It was a round Pokémon, it's top half red, and bottom half yellow. It very much resembled a pokeball. Voltorb. Great.

 

"Ginji!" Before Pikachu had time to react, he was hit with a strong blast of electricity. It shot through his body violently, though not quite as violently as it would have through Ginji's body had this Voltorb decided to use this attack on the Torchic rather than the electric mouse.

 

Pikachu dropped to the ground as soon as the electricity had stopped flowing through his veins. He tried to stand up, but his arms and legs gave way beneath him. They would probably feel like jelly had he have been able to feel them at all right now. Pikachu was now helplessly flat on the cave floor. He could only gather up all the electricity he had been storing in his cheeks up until now and let it out in the form of a light Thundershock. It striked the Voltorb, but not nearly hard enough to do a reasonable amount of damage. The Voltorb went right back to hit Pikachu with a tackle as soon as it was finished being zapped.

 

Ginji watched uselessly as his teammate was thrashed by this thing. His tiny body was throbbing all over, yet he desperately wanted to do something. Then a realization washed over him. Growl! He opened his beak, letting out a chirping sound. The Voltorb now had the same blue zig zagged blue lines running down its body as when Ginji had first used the attack on the group of Sunkern. "Pikachu, use your tail whip!" He instructed his battered partner. "You can lower its defense while I lower its attack!"

 

Pikachu gave Ginji a signal nod to show he got the idea. Pikachu whipped his tail in the air, waving it like a little flag. Now a pattern of green zig zagged lines ran down the Voltorb. The electric pokeball esque Pokémon turned to Ginji, rolling towards him. It hit the chick Pokémon hard with another tackle, ramming him up against the wall. It didn't do as much damage as it could of thanks to growl, but by now Ginji was struggling to breath with this thing's heavy body pushing against his small body. The Voltorb abruptly let him flop to the floor, rolling on its side itself. The Voltorb rolling away from Ginji's face revealed Pikachu standing behind it, breathing heavily. Ginji looked back at the Voltorb, now realizing it couldn't move. It had been paralyzed.

 

"Static… I think." Pikachu told Ginji between breaths. His body was scraped and bruised as he stood on his feet. "You alright?"

 

"You sure it was static? It looked like more than static." Ginji told him, ignoring Pikachu's question.

 

"Then maybe I learned Thunderwave." Pikachu said, his voice frantic and full of fear.

 

"You learned Thunderwave? Great!"

 

"Ginji, we need to get away from here! We're toast if we stay where feral Pokémon could attack us at any minute. Can you stand?"

 

Ginji pulled himself off the ground. He did manage two stand on both feet, but his legs were a bit wobbly. "I think I'll be fine."

 

"If not, lean on me for support, alright?"

 

Ginji reluctantly nodded.

 

"We need to find somewhere to rest."

 

Pikachu and Ginji searched every corner of the cave floor, looking for any crevice or hole big enough to fit both of them. They found none. They did, however, come across the staircase to the next floor.

 

"How about we rest on the staircase?" Ginji asked Pikachu.

 

"Alright. I guess we're less likely to come across any other Pokémon there than were are here."

 

The duo dragged their beaten bodies down the flight of stairs until they were at the midway point of the stairs. They both plopped down on the step, laying against the wall.

 

"What a time we had, huh?" Ginji asked.

 

"I'll say."

 

"Pikachu, I'm still hungry and this is sort of an emergency."

 

"Yeah, I know." Pikachu took two oran berries from the toolbox, handing one to Ginji and taking a bite out of the one in his paws. "These will make us feel a lot stronger."

 

Ginji slowly chewed his oran berry, savoring the juicy flavor, and felt the berry do its job as the pain in his muscles and bones started to ease.

 

"Say, Pikachu?"

 

"Yeah?" Pikachu's voice was muffled courtesy of a mouth full of berry.

 

"This rescue team stuff is a lot more tougher than I thought it was going to be."

 

"You know something? You're right. I really wanted to form a rescue team because I thought I could help other Pokémon. After seeing the look on Caterpie's face after we rescued him, I thought I could be a hero. Guess I was over thinking things." Pikachu buried his face in his arms.

 

"Hey, don't be so hard on yourself. I mean, when we walked in this cave, and when I attacked that Nidoran, I felt as if I could do anything. I was over thinking things as well."

 

"Ginji, do you think someday I will be a real hero?"

 

"Well, I don't know. I'm not sure I even know what a true hero really is."

 

Pikachu hung his head sadly.

 

He stared at the yellow toolbox he had made the electric rodent carry before coming to the cave that was still slumped over the mouse's shoulder.

 

"Want me to carry the toolbox for a bit?"

 

Pikachu nodded, pulling the strap from over his head and passing the box to Ginji.

 

"Pikachu, thanks for getting me to stop attacking that Nidoran."

 

"Don't mention it." Pikachu smiled, his spirits lifting a little.

 

"And for saving me from that Voltorb."

 

"Hey, we saved each other back there."

 

"That's right. We did." Ginji laughed.

 

"And who says we can't ever become a great rescue team someday. I mean we're only beginners after all. We can't let one defeat get to us."

 

"That's the spirit!" Ginji said. "I can't believe I'm the optimistic one here."

 

"We came in here to rescue Magnemite and that's just what we're going to do! C'mon!" Pikachu was ready to take off down the flight of stairs when Ginji stepped on his tail, causing him to trip and collide with the staircase.

 

"After we rest! I'm exhausted!"

 

"Right. Sorry." Pikachu apologized rather sourly after lifting his face from the stone.

 

Ginji and Pikachu had made pretty good timing the rest of the way, finding some more berries and seeds, and it wasn't long before they heard a buzzing sound. The duo faced each other.

 

"We made it!" They both exclaimed.

 

They followed the sound of the buzzing, hoping it would lead them to somewhere. Their hopes were answered as the buzzing grew louder, revealing it was coming from a small opening in the rock wall. The two raced towards the opening, entering it to find exactly what they were looking for. Against the back wall of the crevice were two Magnemite.

 

"BZZ BZZ. WE ARE VERY GRATEFUL THAT YOU CAME ALL THIS WAY TO RESCUE US. THANK YOU SO MUCH." They both said together in those robotic, monotonous voices.

 

"Heh heh. You're very welcome." Pikachu replied. "Now let's get you two apart."

 

Pikachu grabbed one Magnemite, while Ginji grabbed the other one.

 

"OK, Ginji. On the count of three we're going to pull these guys apart. Count with me."

 

"One." Ginji counted, the U magnet belonging to the Magnemite he held onto clutched in his beak.

 

"Two." Pikachu pulled the Magnemite he held onto from the other one in a flash, sending both him and Ginji as well as the respective Magnemite each one held onto flying backwards.

 

"Three." Ginji finished from across the room, his feet in the air with a Magnemite on top of his torso.

 

"THANK YOU". The two magnetic voices said together.

* * *

 

 

"BZZ BZZ. WE ARE SEPARATED. REJOICE! REJOICE!"

 

One of the Magnemite called out at the entrance of the cave. The four then let out sparks of electricity, hitting one another above their heads. Ginji and Pikachu dodged the sparks as they fell to the ground.

 

"Hey watch it! You guys sure do have a unique way of rejoicing!" Ginji called up to them.

 

"BZZ BZZ. TERRIBLY SORRY. ANYWAY, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR RESCUING US. YOU GUYS ARE OUR HEROES. BZZ BZZ."

 

Pikachu's eyes sparkled and his mouth opened wide into a beam. "It was nothing. Funny enough, our team name is Heroes."

 

Ginji nudged Pikachu. "Well, guess Caterpie's not the only one who sees us as heroes."

 

"I guess not." Pikachu turned to him.

 

"BZZ BZZ. MY GOODNESS. YOU TWO LOOK AWFUL. WHAT DID YOU GET YOURSELVES INTO WHILE YOU WERE IN THERE? BZZ BZZ." One of the Magnemite asked in shock.

 

Pikachu and Ginji looked over each other's bodies. They did still have a lot of bruises, scrapes, and cuts from that fight with the Voltorb.

 

"Oh, it's nothing. We feel great." Pikachu quickly told them.

 

"Yeah. Just a normal rescue team fight is all." Ginji lied.

 

BZZ BZZ. NONSENSE. THE LEAST WE CAN DO TO THANK YOU IS GET YOU PATCHED UP WHEN WE'RE BACK IN POKÉMON SQUARE. AS WELL AS GIVE YOU THESE ITEMS. BZZ BZZ."

 

One Magnemite handed Pikachu a seed and a berry.

 

"A reviver seed and rawst berry. Awesome! Thanks."

 

He walked over to Ginji who was now carrying the toolbox, and placed the seed and berry inside it.

 

"Well, this was a great day but we better be going now." Ginji said aloud, hoping to escape the Magnemite's offer of patching the two up.

 

"BZZ BZZ. NO. WE INSIST ON TREATING THOSE WOUNDS. BZZ BZZ."

 

"Oh, that won't be necessary, but thanks anyway." Ginji said, speeding up the pace, Pikachu right beside him, with the four Magnemite trailing behind them on the way back to the base, insisting on treating them the whole way back.

* * *

 

"Bye you guys! Try not to get stuck together again, alright?" Pikachu waved to the four Magnemite leaving the base together, his body covered with small bandages where his cuts and bruises were once visible. Next to him stood a chick Pokémon in the same condition.

 

"We could have done without that treatment after I clearly said it wasn't necessary, but at least it was free. Thanks!" Ginji added, not expecting one of them to answer back with:

 

"BZZ BZZ. OH NO, THANK YOU. BZZ BZZ."

 

He did expect the slightly tough nudge he recieved from Pikachu after he had said that on the other hand.

 

"What? They thanked me for that one." Ginji protested.

 

Pikachu just rolled his eyes, sighed, and gave another one of his famous friendly smiles, complete with a small laugh afterwards.

 

"You really are something, Ginji. I mean that in a good way." He assured the fire chick.

 

"Guess I am." Ginji agreed. "Well, our first day was a success. Sort of."

 

"What do you mean, 'sort of'? We rescued those two Magnemite, didn't we? That was our mission after all."

 

"Yeah, with multiple injuries courtesy of that Voltorb."

 

"They weren't big injuries. Just some scrapes and bruises."

 

"We still almost got creamed by it."

 

"True, but something good came out of it."

 

"A free medical treatment?" Ginji smirked.

 

"No. We completed our mission! That's what matters most. But yeah, that too."

 

Pikachu opened the toolbox, double checking all the items the duo had recieved thus far.

 

"Plus, didn't we agree we weren't going to let one defeat get to us?" He asked Ginji as he scanned through the box.

 

"You're right. We did."

 

"Hey Ginji?" He asked, turning his head away from the box, and focusing it over his shoulder to where the chick Pokémon was standing.

 

"Yeah?" Ginji answered whilst kicking at the dirt on the ground.

 

"You said I may have learned Thunderwave. Right after that Voltorb fell down paralyzed. I know we agreed that we saved each other but, in the end do you think… I may have been the one to save us back there?"

 

"Who knows. I'd still say it was both of us equally." Ginji answered, lifting his head up so that he was now staring into Pikachu's eyes rather than the dirt on the ground. And upon doing so, there was a pleading look in them that told Ginji the mouse wanted a better answer then the one he had been given. After a few blank seconds, Pikachu nodded and closed the toolbox before placing it next to the mailbox.

 

"Hey, don't forget; if it weren't for my growl that Voltorb would have done a lot more damage to us." Ginji reminded him.

 

"That's true. You're right. It was both of us equally. What about what happened with the Nidoran, though? I have never seen such an inexperienced little Pokémon do something like that to a poison type half their size. It's…wierd. You sure it was just you getting too pumped up?"

 

Ginji didn't know how to answer that, either. The truth was, he had no idea what really happened with him and the Nidoran, nor how they managed to defeat that Voltorb. Odds and luck most likely. There was however, something that felt kind of off when he was attacking that Nidoran. He never had any intention of hurting it, but it almost felt like he had to. As if he wasn't in control of himself at that moment. Pikachu had suggested he think about it, but Ginji still brushed it off as the two of them over thinking it. "I'm sure. Like I said back in Thunderwave Cave, I just got a bit too carried away, that's all. I'll be careful next time."

 

"Ok. Just wanted to be sure." Pikachu seemed to be back to his cheerful demeanor, much to Ginji's relief. "Ya know, I'm getting tired. We should get some rest. We've earned it."

 

Ginji couldn't argue there.

 

"And besides, we need it too." Pikachu added, looking at the bandaged bodies of himself and Ginji for emphasis.

 

"Yep. We sure do." Ginji agreed without hesitation.

 

Pikachu picked up the toolbox, and the two of them headed inside the base.

* * *

 

 

"Today was quite a day." Ginji told Pikachu from across the room, still awake in the nest he was trying to adjust to.

 

"Yeah. It sure was." Pikachu yawned, turning from the wall to where Ginji's nest was. "It was definitely a new experience for me, that's for sure. I liked it."

 

"Even the hard parts?" Ginji asked.

 

"Well, no. But challenges are important as well. "Remember that talk we had on the staircase in Thunderwave Cave? We're only a new team. I mean, we can learn from those challenges and get stronger. At least that's what all the older Pokémon say." Pikachu laughed.

 

"Yeah." Ginji said, shutting his eyes again.

 

"We just need to hope that tomorrow will be a better day, and work hard at our rescue missions."

 

"Mhmm." Ginji mumbled, tossing himself around and sending straw and hay flying as he tried to get comfortable.

 

"Someday we'll be one of the best rescue teams ever." Pikachu rested his head on his paws, and stared at the ceiling for a bit before looking out the window above him to see the stars shining brightly. Perhaps some star gazing would take his mind off the sound of Ginji tossing and turning in his nest. He had started to count them as he had done last night, until his eyes started fluttering, struggling to stay open.

 

"Goodnight Ginji." Pikachu let his eyes close, and turned to face the wall as sleep began to overtake him.

 

When Ginji had finally found a somewhat comfortable position, he once again shut his eyes, praying that sleep would come while trying to ignore the itchy nest underneath him. Just before his body was about ready to drift off, a thought popped into Ginji's mind that oddly enough had never made its way there at all today.

 

"Say, Pikachu?"

 

"Yes?" Pikachu answered, half awake now.

 

"There's something I didn't understand about those Magnemite."

 

"Oh yeah, what?"

 

"How did they manage to give us those items and help bandage us up when their arms are U shaped magnets? I mean, I assume those are their arms."

 

This was going go be a long night. And most likely, a long career with Ginji as well.

* * *

 


	3. New Faces, Unfamiliar Places

* * *

 

Sleep came to Ginji gradually that night. When he opened his eyes, he didn't find himself in that same small base on the same straw and hay nest he would have to grow accustomed to. Instead, a pure white light was shining in his face. However, there was something different about this light. It wasn't harsh like the sunlight, and his eyes didn't need to adjust to it like most people's did when they turned on a light after just waking up. If anything, this light was more like mist than actual light. It was rather soothing. Ginji let the misty light consume him entirely. He spent a few moments basking in it before his surroundings became more visible through the fog like light. They consisted of nothing but a green void, with a little bit of brighter green-almost yellow blending in. No trees and bushes, dirt roads, team bases, and no Pokémon besides himself. All in all, it was quite peaceful. Nothing but the comforting light and the swirling colours of green and yellow complementing one another beneath him.

 

" _What is this place? I must be dreaming."_ Ginji dismissed. He rose to his feet, and studied his surroundings once more. Still the same void which the light was illuminating.

 

"Hello? Pikachu? Anyone?" He called out. He received no response.

 

He started to move forward, hoping to come across something or someone sooner or later. As he tried to walk ahead, he noticed something else rather odd. It wasn't he himself who was going anywhere, but the void that was. It was as if he was walking on a large green and yellow treadmill. He tried running as an alternative. He ended up with the same result.

 

For a dream, this felt strangely real. Ginji couldn't explain it, but it felt as if he wasn't dreaming at all. He was still in perfect control of his body and mind in the same way he would be if he was awake.

 

He raised one of his legs so that his foot was touching his cheek. He then pinched the flesh in between his chick-like toes. Pulling it back, he let go of it, and yet out a yelp. A sharp pain shot through the cheek he had pinched. Who knew Torchic flesh was so sensitive?

 

" _I even felt that one."_ He thought as he rubbed his sore cheek with his foot.

 

After his foot had touched the ground again (assuming the colours beneath him were a ground), he felt something he best described as a presence. He couldn't see or hear anyone, he just felt as if someone else was right there with him. He didn't even know how he could sense something like that.

 

"Hello? Is anyone there?" No answer.

 

" _Ok. This is getting really weird."_

 

"Whoever you are, you better show yourself!" Ginji tried to sound as intimidating as he could, but deep down he knew Pikachu would probably tease him for failing miserably at it.

 

All the better reason that no one showed up or responded.

 

Ginji plopped down on the green and yellowy ground. He was now wishing that he would wake up soon. Sure it had been nothing but peace and quiet in this void, but the feeling that someone was watching you yet you couldn't see or hear anyone, coupled with being in a blank area with nothing or no one around was enough to begin sending shivers down Ginji's spine.

 

Ginji didn't think things could get any more strange or creepy, until he took a quick glance at the ground to find his legs and feet becoming see-through!

 

This caused Ginji to jump to his now transparent feet in shock.

 

" _What's happening?!"_

 

After that, it wasn't just his feet and legs anymore. It was his body.

 

_I'm disappearing! But how?!"_

 

Ginji grew more paranoid as his body began to vanish. What would happen to him if he disappeared here? It was just a dream, so there was nothing to worry about. Or at least that's what Ginji tried to tell himself.

 

"Help me! Somebody! Anybody! I don't want to fade away! Please! I'll do anything! I'll…"

* * *

 

"No! Please! Please don't let me disappear! I want to live! I want to…" Ginji kept his eyes open long enough to see pieces of the now ravaged nest scattered around him. He stopped thrashing about and took a good long look around him. He was in the same rescue team base he had fallen asleep in the night before. "Live." He finished his plea feeling pretty stupid.

 

Ginji hastily checked all over his body to confirm it indeed was only a dream. "Ok. Legs, feet. Check. Body. Check. Wings. Check mate. Tail. Checkity. Feathers. Double check. Head. Pretty sure I wouldn't be seeing the rest of myself if it wasn't still there. Triple check. Still alive. Still alive. Just a dream."

 

Ginji plopped down and followed that up with a sigh of relief.

 

" _Man, what a weird dream. But what was it all about?"_

 

Ginji heard the sound of hay rustling from across the base. He turned his head to the left to see the form of Pikachu tossing to his side so that he now faced Ginji.

 

"Jeez, Ginji. You could have at least told me you were a light sleeper." Pikachu yawned.

 

"Yeah, well that wasn't my fault. I had the weirdest dream." Ginji got up and walked towards Pikachu's nest until he was standing over the electric mouse.

 

"Oh yeah? What sort of weird dream?"

 

"Well, I was in this glowing greeny yellow void and it felt like someone was there with me and…" Ginji caught sight of the drowsiness in Pikachu's eyes midway through his first sentence. "You know what? Never mind."

 

"You sure you don't want to talk about it?"

 

"I'm sure. It was only a dream, anyway." In all honesty, talking about it probably would have helped, but it wasn't like Pikachu was going to know anything about it. And given the look in the mouse's eyes right now, he would doze off again long before Ginji got to the body vanishing part.

 

"Ok." Pikachu gently closed his only half opened eyes, and let his head droop down in his nest.

 

"So I guess today marks another day of rescuing?" Ginj guessed, more hoping to change the subject than to take logic into consideration. I.E; asking Pikachu about a long day of rescuing despite the fact that the mouse looked like he was ready curl up into a cushion with a blanket. Or whatever Pokémon used as a comfortable sleeping place besides nests. As if those things were the most comfortable things in the world to begin with. Wool, perhaps?

 

"Actually, I thought I would show you around the Pokémon Square today."

 

"Pokémon Square?"

 

"Where I went to register our team before."

 

"Sort of like a tour?"

 

"Yeah. I guess you could call it that."

 

"Later today, right?" Ginji asked what was most likely the most obvious question he'd asked Pikachu so far.

 

Pikachu playfully smirked. "Of course. It's still really early." Pikachu pointed out the window with the tip of his ear to show Ginji that the sun was still climbing into the sky.

 

"Right."

 

"I'll wake you up when it's time to go. Assuming you sleep longer than I do. Or wake me up first with more flailing about in your nest from any more weird dreams. Or wet your nest. Whichever comes first."

 

"Oh, ha ha. Maybe I'll wake you up on purpose next time for that one." Ginji remarked to combat Pikachu's harmless joke at the chick's expense.

 

"Sure thing, Ginji." Pikachu smiled at the corner of his mouth before turning himself to face the wall again.

 

Ginji gathered the clumps of his nest he had sent flying up, and threw them down on what remained of his next. He did a less than sloppy job at it, and the nest looked like a train wreck of twigs and straw, but Ginji couldn't care less at this point. He would fix it later that evening. If he could be bothered to. He poked and prodded at his nest in an attempt to make it a bit more comfy. Or as comfy as you could make a nest of straw. He walked in tiny circles around it, trying to lay down every two or three seconds. Once he had somehow managed to find a position that best suited him, he let sleep overtake him once more. This time there were no glowing green voids, misty, comforting, fog-esque lights, strange presences, or disappearing only to wake up to find his nest almost completed destroyed. Just silent, peaceful darkness.

* * *

 

"Ginji. Hey, Ginji. Wakey Wakey. It's time to go to the square."

 

Ginji felt a small paw prodding at his side. He didn't even need a second to wonder who that paw belonged to. He opened a single eye to be greeted with the friendly face of Pikachu smiling at him.

 

"I was afraid you were a not so light sleeper after all. Sleep ok?"

 

Ginji gave Pikachu a somewhat vacant expression. "Well, I would have. If you didn't just wake me up right now." He mumbled.

 

"Sorry. But you know, you woke me up even earlier this morning with your wailing. I think we're pretty even now." Pikachu reminded him.

 

"Whatevs." Ginji grumbled. He couldn't argue with Pikachu on that, but he didn't want to admit he was wrong either. He hated having to humble himself like that. Who didn't really?

 

"Besides, I wanted to get a fresh start. There's a lot of ropes I need to show you."

 

"You say so." Ginji shrugged. He rose to his feet, almost pretending to put effort into getting out of bed.

 

"Off to the Pokémon Square, right?"

 

"That's right." Pikachu nodded.

 

"Lead the way."

 

Obviously Pikachu had never heard that statement in his life before, otherwise he wouldn't have bolted out of the base before Ginji could blink, leaving nothing but a trail of dust and a certain chick Pokémon behind him.

 

"Hey! I said LEAD the way not LEAVE me behind." Ginji called after Pikachu. Albeit he received no response.

 

Ginji groaned and darted out of the base in an effort to catch up with his speedy companion. He came to a halt a few feet outside the base, there being no sight of Pikachu.

 

" _Well, that's just great. I wonder if the reason he wants to form a rescue team with me is because he tried forming rescue teams with other Pokémon before, but they just ditched him because they couldn't keep up with him. Or he lost them and didn't notice until he was miles ahead and couldn't go back to look for them. Probably both."_

 

Ginji looked at the area around him. It was the same one he had familiarized himself with for the past couple days. There was a dirt path leading from the rescue base to an even bigger path. There was a forested area across the wide path, and, well that was pretty much it. Honestly, there wasn't much to see around the base property. Ginji hoped that would change at this Pokémon Square place. What did seem to hint at much more was three different pathways the dirt road lead to. Ginji recognized the one ahead as the one he and Pikachu took in order to get to Thunderwave Cave and rescue the two Magnemite the day before. It must lead to multiple dungeons. He assumed the path on the right would probably lead to some other dungeons as well. He could make out a wooden bridge on the left path along with some grass. Heavens only knew which one Pikachu took.

 

"Now if I were a speedy electric mouse, where would I be?" Ginji pondered to himself. It wasn't as if he had much time to, because Pikachu came zipping down the left path the second Ginji turned his head. He skidded to a halt right in front of the chick Pokémon. He had quite the apologetic look on his face. For good reason.

 

"Heh, Guess I should have made sure you were right behind me, huh?" Pikachu had a sheepish look on his face. He slowly rubbed his paw on the back of his head.

 

"You think?" Ginji deadpanned.

 

"Sorry about that. This time I'll go at a slower pace." Pikachu assured him. Ginji couldn't say he was entirely convinced.

 

"Any of your friends tell you you're just a little bit of a speedaholic?" Ginji asked Pikachu while the mouse was getting back down on all fours.

 

"How did you kn-"Pikachu stopped in the middle of his question, partly after catching Ginji's stare, and partly due to his own sudden realization. He started reforming his innocent smile. "Lucky guess?"

 

"Uh huh."

 

"Well, in that case you're going to love my friends."

 

"I would love to meet them. I need to ask them just how they can put up with you 24/7. Or even better, how they can keep up with you."

 

Pikachu laughed. It was clear the mouse Pokémon didn't mind a joke at his expense every so often. That was to be expected though. Given his positive attitude and the way he made snide comments all in good fun, how could he?

 

"Don't worry. I don't run that far. Except when I go exploring. And even then, I can always find my way back to the square. I know this place like the back of my paw."

 

"Well, that's surprising." Ginji commented.

 

"Well, we better not waste any more time here. Think you can keep up?" Pikachu asked him over his shoulder.

 

Ginji shot him quite the look. It was a look that told the rodent he wasn't too keen on the idea of scurrying a mile behind him in a huff to try to keep up with him just because he couldn't sit still for less than five milliseconds. "Well, I don't know, Pikachu. You did say you were going to go at a slower pace, didn't you?" Ginji's eyes squinted harder and harder as he reminded Pikachu of his words passive aggressively.

 

"Yeah. I did." Pikachu admitted rather disappointedly. Adrenaline was this guy's best friend, no doubt.

 

"So, we're off?"

 

"Yep. Here we go." Pikachu was off again. He did keep his words and went at a slower pace this time. Sure, Ginji was still left barrelling pathetically trying to catch up, but at least it was a somewhat slower pace. Or at least in his book. To be fair, Pikachu did check over his shoulder once or twice to make sure Ginji was still following him.

 

"Hey, wait up! You know, it really doesn't help that I have two skinny legs to run on while you have four sturdy ones."

 

Ginji forced his scrawny legs forward in a sad, desperate attempt to keep the trail going. If this was what the mouse Pokémon called a slow pace, he couldn't wait to see him at his fastest.

 

It was when Ginji was crossing the wooden bridge that he realized Pokémon didn't exactly set the best safety standards either. You see, waking up in the body of a Torchic and having to adjust to a round fluffy body supported by only two stick-like legs was a daunting enough task already. Trying to keep up with a swift yellow rodent who ran on all fours while you had to rely on said stick like ones was an even more daunting task. You were bound to trip and stumble every now and then. It was just a shame one of those times happened to be on a bridge with no wooden rails on the sides. Due to what was under the bridge, this would mark the first time Ginji asked himself that if he had to have woken up as a Pokémon, out of all types, why did it have to be fire?

 

The splashing noise behind Pikachu indicated to the mouse Pokémon that he didn't need to check behind him to make sure Ginji was still following him anymore.

* * *

 

"Remind me to find out who built that stupid bridge like that so I can find and throttle them." Ginji sneered, his feathers dripping wet with water.

 

Pikachu shielded his face as droplets of water were flung towards him when Ginji shook himself off violently. He took his arms away from his face just in time to get a good look at Ginji. The chick's feathers were poofed out and sticking up on end so that he looked like a little fire orange mop.

 

"You look like a poofy orange cotton ball." Pikachu laughed.

 

"Whatever." Was all Ginji had as a comeback. In all honesty, he did. But he would never give Pikachu satisfaction by admitting that and furthering his humiliation.

 

"Hey, it wasn't my fault. I wasn't the one who built that bridge."

 

"No, but you told me you would go at a slower pace." Ginji pointed in his defense.

 

"I did."

 

"That's what you call a slower pace in this weird world?"

 

"Look, I'm sorry if that wasn't quite slow enough. Next time I promise to make sure you're right beside me. Or better yet, you can tell me if I'm getting too fast. Sound good to you?"

 

"Sure. But you have to promise. For real." Ginji warned.

 

"Cross my heart and hope to die." Pikachu repeated their little oath when he had first shown Ginji his rescue team base after rescuing Caterpie.

 

"Good." Ginji shook himself a second time. His feathers smoothed out closer to their regular look. Well, as regular as a kid who turned into a Torchic's looks could get. "Who builds bridges like that anyway?"

 

Pikachu shrugged his shoulders. "Couldn't tell ya that. That bridge has been there for as long as I can remember."

 

"Well, you Pokémon don't exactly have your safety goals set. Anyone filed a lawsuit for nearly drowning underneath that thing? Anyone who isn't a water type?"

 

"Lawsuit?" Pikachu looked at Ginji as if he had suddenly grown an extra two heads right on the spot. Or morphed into a Dodrio. Either one worked fine.

 

"Never mind. Point is, that bridge is kind of dangerous, don't ya think?"

 

"Maybe a little bit. But, hey; look on the bright side. It could have been a lot worse. The pit could have been bottomless or full of acid instead of water."

 

"Thanks for the reassurance." Ginji said dryly.

 

"Actually, Ginji. There's something else you kind of should be thanking me for." Pikachu reminded him in the most polite way possible. A realization crossed his mind when Ginji had used the word in a different way. The chick Pokémon had not yet properly thanked him for pulling him out of the river. All while Ginji had been clutching the end of Pikachu's tail between his beak as the electric rodent had climbed both of them out. Pikachu was just glad Torchic didn't have sharp teeth. That would have been something else to worry about in addition to not zapping Ginji again. Especially when he was soaked from head to toe. Not the most pleasant thought.

 

"And saving me from drowning in a stream." He added, getting Pikachu's hint.

 

"Don't mention it." Pikachu paused for a bit after that. "Well, I kind of made you but…"

 

"How about we just drop it?" Ginji suggested.

 

"Sounds good to me." Pikachu agreed to that immediately.

 

It was a few seconds before Pikachu told him:

 

"Hey, it's a good thing the sun is shining bright today. That will help dry you off."

 

"I guess." Ginji said in a tone not nearly as optimistic as Pikachu's.

 

"When that ditch first appeared and created a stream, we needed some way to get across it. A wooden bridge was our best option, wasn't it?"

 

"Can we just get along with the tour? I think we've talked about this enough." Ginji said, tone remaining the same.

 

"Good idea." The way Pikachu had said that indicated he never really wanted to delve too deep in the subject to begin with.

 

"So are we close to this Pokémon Square or what?" Ginji asked to start a new topic.

 

"Just up ahead." Pikachu pointed to a small village not more than three feet in front of them.

 

The two continued up the path until they were at least right in front of it.

 

"So this is the Pokémon Square?" Ginji asked his companion whilst having a quick scan of the town.

 

"Yep. Cute little place, isn't it?"

 

It wasn't too much more than what Pikachu had described it as; a cute little place. It was actually more like a hamlet than a town or a village. There were the all too familiar rocks, bushes, and plants here and there. Nothing Ginji hadn't seen since he became a Pokémon. Or what he was sure he saw every day in his life before. The place was bustling with a few different types of Pokémon. What really caught Ginji's attention were the stands with Pokémon standing behind them. They must have been on every single corner you turned. It reminded him of those festivals he could recall where people sold goods at their booths with tents set up. There were even tents next to each stand to boot. They must have been where the Pokémon lived or stayed when they weren't doing…whatever it was they did at their booths. The dirt path he and Pikachu were standing on lead to three other ones. One heading north of the square, another one heading south, and the final one heading east. The square had quite the welcoming atmosphere to it. It was simply a nice little place for Pokémon to hang around and go about with their business. What seemed like the ideal place to chill and chat was the middle of the square. It had somewhat of a round stone patio in the ground. A Lotad, Snubbull, and Bellsprout appeared to be pretty content in a conversation the three of them were having.

 

"Yeah. Sure." Was all Ginji answered with. He really didn't have too much to say about it.

 

"Well, we better get started on that 'tour'. First things first, let me introduce you to the Kecleon brothers." Pikachu began to lead Ginji to the nearest stand in the square. Well, it was so near that it was only a couple feet away. The Pokémon Square wasn't a very big place to begin with.

 

Behind the stand were two Kecleon. One was green with yellow markings on his skin, while the other was purple with teal markings on his. Odd. Ginji didn't remember Kecleon coming in purple. Not even shiny Kecleon were that colour. He didn't think about it for too long though. He was too distracted by the items on the shelves behind them. Stacked from top to bottom on the shelves were seeds, berries, apples, vegetables, scarves, bands, and ribbons galore. But what really caught Ginji's attention were the stones and orbs amongst the merchandise. The stones came in various colours. Some had patterns on them, others looked more like gems. Some of the orbs were luminous, some appeared to be sparkling. They were unlike anything Ginji had ever seen. Besides the orbs, stones, clothing, and food, there were oddly shaped containers with small glass doors. Ginji couldn't even begin to guess what was inside them.

 

" _Pokémon grocery store."_ Ginji decided to refer to it as.

 

"Morning Kecleon brothers." Pikachu greeted with that oh so chipper attitude.

 

"Good morning, Pikachu. Welcome to the Kecleon warehouse." They greeted back in unison. Brothers indeed.

 

"Oh? And who's your friend? I don't believe I've seen him around before." Green Kecleon asked, having noticed Ginji and taking a glance at him.

 

"This is my new teammate Ginji. Ginji, these are the Keclen brothers." Pikachu introduced.

 

"I see the family resemblance." Ginji commented.

 

No one seemed bothered by that one. There was no denying these two were without a doubt brothers by just looking at them.

 

"Ginji's new around here, so I'm giving him a 'tour'. At least that's what he wants to call it. Showing him the ropes, y'know?" Pikachu went on.

 

"Started up a rescue team have you? Well, you've certainly come to the right place and Pokémon to introduce him to." Purple Kecleon stated. He then turned to Ginji. "Little fellow, we've got just about anything you need here at the Kecleon warehouse."

 

"Right. Thanks." Ginji said, half afraid he was making himself look awkward. There was something about the way these Kecleon talked in just about the same manner. They even had voices that were very hard to tell apart from one another.

 

"Speaking of which, is there anything we can do for you, Pikachu?" He turned back to the electric mouse to ask him that particular question.

 

"Actually, there was but I left the toolbox back at the base. Is it alright if I come back some other time?" Pikachu asked them.

 

"Certainly." The green Kecleon answered with a smile for the Purple one. "We'll always be here whenever you need us for anything."

 

"I know, Kecleon. Thank you." Pikachu waved to them as he headed away from the stand.

 

"Right. Well, um…thanks." Ginji said before following Pikachu to wherever the mouse would take him next.

 

"They're kind of weird." Ginji whispered to Pikachu once the two were out of earshot.

 

"Those are the Kecleon brothers for ya." Pikachu agreed.

 

"Yeah, but the way they say things almost exactly the same and have almost the exact same voices. All you say is "those are the Kecleon brothers for ya'? Doesn't creep you out even little bit?"

 

"C'mon, Ginji. As if you aren't a little odd yourself?" Pikachu teased.

 

"Oh, ha ha. There's a huge difference between my weird and their weird." Ginji tried to tell his teammate, ultimately sounding like he was doing it in the feeblest way possible. Which he was.

 

"Ok Ginji. I guess there is." Pikachu said. Ginji wasn't sure if he meant that or if Pikachu was just messing with him again.

 

"By the way, what were in those weird container things?" Ginji asked to get the little question off his chest.

 

"Those are TM and HM machines."

 

"Really?" He didn't remember them looking like those.

 

"Yeah. You can learn moves with them."

 

"I know what they do. They just don't usually look like that."

 

"Man, your amnesia really is worse than I thought." Pikachu said rather sadly. Something about the way he said it bugged Pikachu. For one thing, Pikachu was still treating Ginji's problem like it was just bad amnesia and nothing much more mysterious like a human turning into a Pokémon. It was obvious Pikachu hadn't started to believe him. Another thing was after becoming used to Pikachu's optimistic personality, it was a bit jarring to hear anything other than positivity come from him. He first discovered that the other day in Thunderwave Cave, where it was HIM who had to be the one telling Pikachu to keep his spirits high. A sad or not as perky Pikachu was a kind of uncomfortable to be around.

 

"Hey, we can worry about this later. Why not show me around some more?" Ginji suggested in a desperate attempt to get Pikachu to stop worrying about the whole amnesia thing for the time being. Not necessarily out of concern for Pikachu, but to make things less awkward for himself.

 

"Right. The next place I want to take you to is the bank. C'mon." Pikachu stated, having Ginji change the subject work.

 

Pikachu lead Ginji to a stand across the middle of the square. He was grateful Pikachu wasn't racing everywhere this time around. Probably learning from his mistakes after Ginji took a plummet into a river. Or he was respectful enough not to disturb the peace of the locals. The latter being more likely.

 

"You have banks around here?" Ginji asked, quite surprised. The last word he thought Pokémon would use was 'bank'. Well, that and countless other words that would be a lot more out of place for them to use. He didn't even think Pokémon would understand the concept of money.

 

"Of course. Where else would we store our Poké?" Pikachu asked.

 

" _Of course. Not money. Poké."_  Ginji remembered after Pikachu used the word.

 

The stand Ginji was lead to present a Persian behind it, and bags filled with what Ginji could only assume to be Poké. The Persian himself was grooming. He licked his big paw with that thin cat-like tongue of his before rubbing the back of it over his ear. Pokémon weren't too much different from animals when you got down to it. If you didn't pay attention to the fact that animals couldn't use moves and lacked elemental typing to do so. And they couldn't talk. Ginji then remembered one little fact about himself and the creatures around him; that's what everyone thought about Pokémon before. HOPEFULLY animals couldn't talk as well.

 

"This is the Persian bank." Pikachu told him once they were in front of the 'bank'.

 

"Fitting." Ginji replied. "You guys name everything after the Pokémon who runs it?"

 

"You know something, that's a good question. I guess around here we do. I don't know about other places. I guess I'll find out when I travel to those places."

 

The Persian must have heard their little talk because he stopped grooming himself and turned his eyes towards the two much smaller Pokémon in front of his bank.

 

"Good day, Pikachu. I will have you and your friend know I've renamed this place." Persian informed Pikachu in a calm yet firm tone.

 

"Good day to you too Persian." There was something a little less cheery about the way Pikachu greeted him this time around almost as if Pikachu was a bit nervous about talking to him. "Sorry. What did you change the name to?"

 

"Felicity Bank?"

 

"Why Felicity?"

 

"Just wanted to be a bit more shall we say unique you know? Don't want every place to be named after the Pokémon running it, now do we?" He turned to Ginji and narrowed his eyes at the young chick on his last line.

 

"No sir. Good point." Ginji gulped. Something about the look in Persian's red eyes made him slightly uncomfortable.

 

"Oh. Ginji, this is Persian though I'm sure you know that." Pikachu said that quickly to be prepared for a very possible ''No? Really?'' type of look from Ginji. "Persian, this is my new rescue teammate Ginji. He's not from around here so I'm showing him around."

 

"I see." Persian took a good look at the chick, squinting his eyes a bit as his did so. "Well, I'm sure you know what my business has to offer being a bank and all?"

 

"Yes, Sir." Ginji nodded in a hurry.

 

Persian stretched his neck out to from behind his booth to loom down on the two. Ginji jumped behind Pikachu for cover, and peeked his head out from behind his slightly taller partner's back. Pikachu just let his tail flatten along the ground, and crouched down a bit.

 

"You wouldn't happened to have seen Meowth or Munchlax around causing trouble lately, now would you?"

 

"No, sir." Pikachu shook his head slowly. "I haven't seen them for a couple days now. They must be out on a trip somewhere. Or they got lost while away on one of their schemes."

 

"You will let me know if any suspicious activity starts happening around the square, now won't you?" By now, Persian's eyes were as narrow as Ginji thought they could get.

 

"Yes, of course. Don't you worry about about a thing, Persian." Pikachu assured the tall feline shakily.

 

"Very well. Thank you Pikachu." Persian pulled his head back behind his booth, and sat down. "Pleasure to meet you, Ginji." Persian said to the small chick.

 

"Thanks. You too." Ginji lied. Having a giant cat lean over you was anything but a pleasure to be perfectly honest.

 

"Though I must say, Ginji is quite a strange name for a Torchic." Persian added.

 

Pikachu laughed a bit. "That's what I told him when I first met him."

 

Ginji wasn't sure what bothered him more. Pikachu's childish jokes about him themselves or the fact that Pikachu was all of a sudden was totally comfortable talking to Persian as long as the cat said something that opened an opportunity to tease him.

 

"Yeah yeah. We should probably get going now." Ginji muttered.

 

"Well then, I shall await your next visit." Persian continued to stare at them even as the duo made their way from the stand.

 

"You won't be waiting long Persian, I can guarantee you that." Pikachu called to him. Though Ginji was sure Pikachu's early behaviour around Persian told him otherwise. And that guarantee was a bit too strong a word to use regarding another visit with Persian. Ginji was pretty convinced the only reason Pokémon went there was because their sweet Poké awaited, calling their name.

 

"Forget what I said about the Kecleon brothers. That guy is the one I should really be creeped out by." Ginji nudged Pikachu once they were out of earshot.

 

"That's Persian for ya."

 

"That's going to be your response to everything I say about someone, isn't it?"

 

"Not sure yet." Pikachu shrugged. "Though I do agree with you. Persian is a tad bit on the uncanny side. I think he likes to creep everyone out for fun. He really does mean well."

 

"I'll take your word for it. I'm not going there on my own or during the night ever though."

 

"Ok then. No one's going to make you."

 

"He said something about a Meowth and a Munchlax causing trouble?"

 

"Yeah. Ever since I've been here, Meowth's been a pain in the rear. He's always pulling scams, pranks, and trying to get his greedy paws on other Pokémon's goods. A good thing about having Persian around is that he's always there to put that little bugger in his place. Munchlax is his little sidekick. He just goes along with whatever Meowth plots I guess. I wouldn't worry too much about them. None of their plans ever work anyway. They're actually kind of funny. At least seeing them get what's coming to them all the time is funny." Pikachu explained.

 

"Ok." Ginji said in a way that showed he kind of lost interest. He didn't neccessarily want or need a whole description of them.

 

"Besides, I kind of only said I'd let Persian know about them to get on his good side." Pikachu went on.

 

"Smart idea." Ginji could tell the last ting any Pokémon wanted was not to be on that guy's good side.

 

"Anyway, Let me introduce you to these three lazies." Pikachu pointed to the middle of the square where the Lotad, Snubbull, and Bellsprout were still deep in a conversation. Ginji could merely make out what it was about. Mostly about the natural disasters that had been going on recently, talk about 'first class' rescue teams, and something about a forest fire and a Blastoise, Swampert, and Feraligator called 'team Hydro' putting it out.

 

The trio must not have either not heard them coming or their talk was interesting enough that not one of them looked up seeing as how Ginji and Pikachu were standing right behind them.

 

"Hi guys." Pikachu greeted them in order to get their attention.

 

This caused the Lotad to jump at least three feet in the air wailing in panic. Once his feet had come in contact with the ground again, he sprinted behind Snubbull, shaking violently. The Snubbull placed her paw on her forehead and shook her whole head while letting out a sigh.

 

" _Yep. That would be my reaction to an unexpected greeting from this guy as well."_ Ginji thought without saying it aloud.

 

Lotad peeked out from behind Snubbull in order to see who had dared cause him to nearly have a heart attack. He was presented with the sight of a Torchic shaking his head in embarrassment while a Pikachu standing next to him had an ear slanted backwards while he rubbed his paw along the back of his head, smiling apologetically.

 

"Good heavens Pikachu. You scared the living daylights out of me." Lotad panted, managing to walk back to his former spot on the stone patio.

 

"Sorry Lotad." Pikachu apologized. "I didn't mean to scare you. I'm just really excited today is all."

 

"When are you not excited?" Snubbull asked smartly.

 

Ginji found it pretty amusing that most of the Pokémon around here had the same reaction to Pikachu's happy go lucky attitude as he did.

 

"Good question." Pikachu answered to Snubbull's dry question.

 

"That's our Pikachu." Lotad sighed. "So who's this Torchic here?" He asked after catching sight of Ginji. "I've never seen him around before."

 

Ginji was ready to open his mouth and introduce himself for a change though he didn't get that chance because of course Pikachu was on top of that.

 

"This is my new teammate. I met him a couple days ago. He sure is a strange one."

 

Ginji closed his mouth back up, slightly irritated at both Pikachu doing his talking for him and making jabs at him while doing so.

 

"Ginji, this is Lotad, Snubbull, and Bellsprout." Pikachu pointed out each one individually as he said their species name respectively.

 

"Yeah, I figured considering that's what they are." Ginji muttered just quiet enough for no one to hear.

 

"Ginji?" Snubbull snickered. "What kind of a name is that?"

 

Ginji found it pretty ironic that all these Pokemon found his name the weirdest thing know to Pokémon kind when they had names such as 'Bellsprout, 'Kecleon, and 'Lotad, and 'Snubbull', being named after what they were, nonetheless To Ginji it was kind of like naming a human 'human'. Pokémon parents must be breaking a record for being the plainest parents ever. Ginji didn't say anything regarding the subject. This Snubbull wasn't leaving the best impression on him and he didn't feel the need to further his dislike of her.

 

"Don't listen to Snubbull. She's the biggest downer ever." Pikachu nudged Ginji playfully.

 

"It's cute how you think I can't hear you, Pikachu." Snubbull told him in a cynical manner.

 

"It's just the truth Snubbull." Pikachu excused innocently.

 

"I suppose you're right." Snubbull folded her arms, accepting the cold hard fact.

 

Bellsprout obviously wasn't very interested in the subject of names, but instead the subject of new rescue teams because the next thing he said was:

 

"New teammate? Don't tell me you went through with your plan of forming a rescue team." Bellsprout groaned in a way that showed the confirmation answer wouldn't exactly be what he wanted to hear.

 

"I sure have." Pikachu answered right away as if Bellsprout hadn't just sounded worried a second before. "We're Rescue Team Heroes." Pikachu pumped his small fist in the air.

 

"I can't say you picked the right time to get started, Pikachu." Bellsprout told him doubtfully.

 

"Why do you say that?" Pikachu asked him. His tone changed from excitable to questioning. As if he knew the reason why.

 

"With all these disasters happening lately, it's been quite dangerous in those mystery dungeons. It's not at all safe for new rescue teams."

 

"I knew it." Pikachu said sadly, confirming he knew the answer. "You don't have to worry about us Bellsprout, honest. We've already been through two dungeons, not a scratch on either of us." Pikachu reassured Bellsprout, lying on the last sentence. Neither Pikachu nor Ginji were going to ever forget their struggle in Thunderwave Cave.

 

"That would explain the cut on your cheek." Snubbull pointed.

 

"Oh. You noticed that?" Pikachu rubbed his cheek in disappointment. Ginji inspected Pikachu's cheek after Snubbull mentioned it. He did notice a small cut just above the red dot used for storing electricity. Tunderwave Cave wound. He hadn't actually noticed it before-him and Pikachu sustained quite a few cuts and bruised from that fight with the Voltorb, and the last thing on Ginji's agenda was remembering every single one. Most of him and Pikachu's wounds had healed no problem overnight though apparently there was one on Pikachu that hadn't done so yet. It was only a minor cut, and only someone as critical as Snubbull (at least that's what Gini assumed) would notice it.

 

"Of course. You know me. I have an eye for these sort of things." Snubbull boasted. As if having a 'special eye' for noticing a tiny cut was something to be proud of.

 

"Hey, at least we managed to get through it after all, right?" Pikachu objected, not paying attention to Snubbull's bragging. "We didn't get lost or stuck. I doubt Ginji and I will have much trouble anytime soon." He confided.

 

"There's always a time though." Lotad warned him.

 

"C'mon, guys." Pikachu moaned. "With all these disasters, we're going to need all the help we can get, aren't we? If you ask me, I don't think we could have picked a better time to from a rescue team."

 

"We do need help." Snubbull folded her arms again. "From older and much more experienced rescue teams, that is. Not from a bunch of rookies who can't tell the difference between an oran berry and a grape."

 

Before Pikachu could say anything else in his team's defense(or before Ginji could attempt to peck this pink bulldog to the ground for being so obnoxious), three young Pokémon came stampeding down the west path so fast you'd think someone had planted a bomb somewhere in the square. They left a huge cloud of dust behind them from two of them kicking up the dirt road trying to keep up with the one zipping in front of them.

 

Coming to a halt in front of the stone patio was a Squirtle. He had a red scarf wrapped around his neck and held a small fruit in between his fingers. The next Pokémon to stop beside him was a Charmander with a brown scarf around his. The flame on his tail was flickering so fast with each breath the lizard took. Almost like a heartbeat. The last Pokémon was a Chikorita who practically collapsed next to her two friends. She had a yellow toolbox flung over her shoulder and a pink scarf around her neck. The toolbox would most likely explain why she was the one who was most out of breath of the trio.

 

"You guys… couldn't have… stopped… and waited… for five seconds?" She asked in between pants. "He…wasn't even…that fast… he's a Nincada!"

 

"Remind you of a certain yellow someone with a lightning bolt tail?" Ginji whispered to Pikachu, giving him a little nudge.

 

Pikachu just nudged him back indignantly.

 

"So just because he's a Nincada he can't be fast?" Squirtle asked Chikorita with look that screamed 'don't generalize other Pokémon'. "You saw how angry he was."

 

"And what was he going to do to us with those tiny pinchers?" Chikorita asked having caught her breath. "Pinch our faces off?"

 

"No. But pinches hurt more than everyone gives them credit for. Especially when you have skin like mine." He took the hand that wasn't holding on to the fruit and grabbed the skin on his arm between his fingers. He let it go fiercely and let out a yelp. "See. I told you." He told Chikorita, rubbing the spot on his arm where he had pinched himself.

 

"Hey, look on the bright side Chikorita. It could have been a lot worse. He could have been an Aggron, or a Metagross or Salamence, or something." Chamander piped in.

 

"Charmander's right, Chikorita. At least we got a really nice prize. One organic oran berry." Squirtle exclaimed as he raised his arm with the fruit still in between his fingers in the air triumphantly.

 

"Squirtle, that's a grape." Charmander corrected him after getting a good look at their 'prize.'

 

"It is?" Squirtle lowered his hand and narrowed his eyes to get a closer look at the blue purple fruit he held between his fingers. "You're right. I didn't get a good look at it when Nincada chucked it at us. I was too busy running for my life."

 

"He was ticked, Squirtle." Chikorita pointed out. "What made you think what he threw at us was an oran berry?"

 

"I dunno. It was round and it sort of looked like one when it went flying at us. And there was a little bit of juice that squirted on my face when it bounced off of it." Squirtle answered.

 

"A lot of soft fruits do that Squirtle. It doesn't necessarily mean they're berries." Charmander pointed out.

 

"Who cares? At least they taste good." With that Squirtle plopped the grape in his mouth and chewed It up before swallowing it.

 

Charmander and Chikorita just sighed. Chikorita shook her head a bit while Charmander had a small smile grow on his face.

 

"The point is it would be nice to have a successful mission for once." Chikorita sighed.

 

"Yeah. I mean, look at us. We can't even collect apples for a client without ticking him off." Squirtle added, hanging his head sadly.

 

Chikorita gave him a bit of a look that read 'Thanks. Really helps'.

 

Charmander nodded silenty at Chikorita's statement, and there was a bit of silence between the three. Before Charmander spoke up.

 

"Hey, c'mon guys. Just because we've had two or three unsuccessful rescue missions-"

 

"Two or three?" Chikorita cut him off.

 

"Ok. A few- doesn't mean they're all going to end in failure."

 

Chikorita and Squirtle's heads raised while their eyes widened. They gave each other a quick look before shifting their gazes back to Charmander.

 

"I mean, we've only started out. We have a long career ahead of us so there's no sense in doubting ourselves now." Charmander encouraged. "We just got to keep on trying, right?"

 

Squirtle regained his smile. "You're right Charmander."

 

Chikorita rose to her feet. "Yeah. You both are." She smiled.

 

"That settles that." Squirtle finished. "Hey, who wants to go to Whiscash Pond? I'm in the mood for a swim. Also, I need to work on learning water gun."

 

"As long as you don't splash me, then alright." Charmander agreed.

 

"I'll go if you guys are going." Chikorita said.

 

"Maybe afterwards we can get Eevee to pick up some supplies for us from the Kecleon shop." Squirtle added. "Let's go."

 

Squirtle lead the way as the three of them raced through the middle of the square and up the north path. Squirtle must have tripped on one of the stones in the ground because just as he was about to turn to the north path, he bumped into Snubbull, sending both him and her to the ground.

 

"Hey! Watch where you're running!" Snubbull complained after Squirtle fell on top of her. "Get off me."

 

"Sorry, Snubbull." Squirtle apologized while Snubbull harshly shoved him off. She got up off the ground, and dusted herself off, mumbling a few things neither Ginji nor Pikachu could make out. "Oh. Hey Pikachu." Squirtle waved to the electric mouse after noticing him in the square.. It wasn't a very long greeting as Squirtle realized his two friends had disappeared up the path already. "Hey, guys, wait up!" Squirtle called after them. He was back on his feet and running again in a heartbeat and before anyone said anything else, he had disappeared as well.

 

"Case in point." Snubbull spat.

 

"Oh, c'mon Snubbull. Team Go-Getters isn't that bad. They want to help other Pokémon in need just as much as the next rescue team." Pikachu objected. He was visibly annoyed by now.

 

" _Wow. This killjoy actually managed to annoy Pikachu. Should that be in the book of world records or something?"_ Ginji smartly thought to himself.

 

"They may WANT to help. In the same way you do." Snubbull looked Pikachu in the eye on that one. Pikachu just rolled his eyes. "But I have yet to see them actually do anything remotely helpful. Only thing those kids are good for is giving the Kecleon brothers spectacular sales on fruit thanks to Squirtle's appetite. Leave the rescuing to the professionals."

 

"Oh, and I suppose you could do a better job in a rescue team." Ginji smirked.

 

"She wasn't necessarily implying she could, Ginji." Pikachu reminded him.

 

"Shut up Pikachu. I'm trying to be smart with my comebacks here." Ginji muttered back to him.

 

"All I know is you wouldn't get me in one of those mystery dungeons." Bellsprout shuddered.

 

"I will say this for those three. They strive to make this place better for other Pokémon. They continue to work hard even if they don't always succeed. They want to contribute to this world in any way they can. And I don't know too much about being a member of a rescue team, but I would say those are important qualities for one." Lotad gave his opinion on the trio.

 

"I just hope you two will be very careful. It's a dangerous world out there." Bellsprout cautioned them.

 

"Don't worry about us Bellsprout. You can count on Ginji and me." Pikachu assured him. "Right, Ginji." Pikachu asked most likely hoping the chick would get the message calling for backup.

 

"Um… Sure." Ginji confirmed, rushing the answer. He thought to himself for a bit before forming a smirk. "You can sleep well knowing Team Heroes is on the case. But if you wake up and find your tent or home or wherever you guys live is in unidentifiable pieces, it's not our fault. We only guaranteed you a peaceful sleep. We didn't say anything about what would happen when you woke up.'' Ginji joked.

 

Lotad and Bellsprout looked at him with dread in their eyes, while Snubbull just scoffed obviously realizing it was just a joke, though not finding it either funny or amusing.

 

"I was only joking." Ginji sighed.

 

"Well, then." Pikachu stepped in front of his younger companion. "We'd better be on our way. Still got a few things to show Ginji after all, and that sun's not staying in the sky forever. C'mon, Ginji." Pikachu gently shoved him along. "We'll see you guys around then." He called back to the trio.

 

"Take care, Pikachu and… um.." Lotad started before hacking his brain trying to remember the Torchic's odd name.

 

"Ginji." Ginji reminded him.

 

"Oh yes. Ginji." Lotad finished. He sounded as though getting Ginji's name right wasn't the most important thing in the world to him.

 

"I still think it's a pretty ridiculous name." Snubbull huffed. ''And what was up with that hideous X scar on his forehead?'' Ginji heard her whisper loud enough for him to hear to her comrades.

 

"Well, nice to meet you too, Ms. Eternally scrunched face." Ginji snarked off to her trying hard to ignore the fact that his scar was pretty noticeable while Pikachu continued to push him along. After that comment Ginji felt himself be forcefully knocked behind the nearest tree. Pikachu jumped behind it right after.

 

"Ow. What was that for?" Ginji whined.

 

"Ginji, you shouldn't really go around calling other Pokemon names like that. Especially if you want to make a good impression as a new rescue team." Pikachu told him. He wasn't scolding him as much as he was giving him advice which Ginji found kind of funny to say the least.

 

"Even if they do have an ugly scrunched up face, are a total no fun allowed blowhard, and insulted you first?' Ginji asked in a similar manner to a little kid asking for candy.

 

"Even then." Pikachu chuckled. Ginji could tell Pikachu shared the same opinion with him on Snubbull. Pikachu was likely one of those guys that was just too polite to say what he really thought to others. "You've got an interesting way with words, Ginji."

 

"Thanks." Ginji bragged. "It's my specialty."

 

Pikachu just smiled and rolled his eyes a bit. He had a hard time being stern with Ginji (or anyone for that matter). There was something so fun about the young Torchic even if he was a bit rude most of the time and just being a straight up smart alec the rest of it.

 

"Well, I may as well take you to the Kangaskhan storage and introduce you to Auntie Kangaskhan." Pikachu stated. He started towards a booth just ahead of them a few feet from the tree they had been standing under.

 

"Auntie Kangaskhan?" Ginji asked, following Pikachu. Did Pokémon have family members that were different species? Or did they just call Pokémon close to them by family names?

 

"Well, at least that's what I and the younger Pokémon call her. She insists."

 

"Ok then." Ginji was still a bit weirded out by that concept but it really wasn't his place to judge. He wasn't a real Pokémon anyway.

 

"Good afternoon, Auntie Kangaskhan." Pikachu chirped.

 

"Good afternoon to you too, young Pikachu." Kangaskhan waved to him. "Now who is this youngster?" Kangaskhan asked after catching sight of the Torchic once he and Ginji were in front of her booth.

 

Ginji opened his mouth to speak but was instantly silenced by Pikachu.

 

"That's my new teammate, Ginji. He's not from around here. I'm giving him a little tour of the Pokémon Square. He's got a lot to learn, y'know."

 

" _It must be nice to be such a fast talker. Just imagine being able to talk for others without their input on anything you say about them."_  Ginji thought to himself.

 

"Ginji?" Kangaskha pondered. "Now that's quite a different name."

 

"So I've heard a lot today." Ginji told her.

 

"This is Kangaskhan storage. Auntie Kangaskhan can store all our item here." Pikachu explained.

 

"So it's like a bank for items?" Ginji asked.  _"Or a storage building for Pokèmon."_

 

"Yeah. Like that." Pikachu answered. Ginji felt as if Pikachu was just saying things around here were what he described them as because the mouse figured it was making things easier for him to understand.

 

"That's right. You have any items that need to be kept in a safe place while you're out exploring, this is the perfect place. I'll take good care of your items here at Kangaskhan Storage." Kangaskhan boomed. She did so in the exact manner a product marketer trying to sell their merchandise would.

 

"Extra special care!" A tiny, squeaky voice chirped. Ginji flicked his head around a bit, looking for the source of the voice. Pikachu didn't seem fazed by it. He looked back at Kangaskhan to ask where it came from. His question was answered in the form of a tiny, purple kangaroo like Pokèmon popping out of the much taller kangaroo's pouch. "You can count on mama!"

 

Pikachu laughed at the baby Kangaskhan's youthful tone. "I sure can. I always have."

 

Kangaskhan looked at Ginji again. Her pleasant smile seemed to be vanishing this time around. She leaned her head a bit closer to Ginji until the small chick was nervously backing away.

 

"Something wrong, mam?" Ginji asked, using 'mam' to show respect to her, albeit only because he was slightly intimidated.

 

"Oh, dear. Wherever did you get that scar, youngster?" She asked him with much concern in her voice.

 

"Huh?" Ginji asked, confused at first. Then it hit him like a dart. Snubbull had just made a comment about it no more than a minute ago. "Oh, this scar." He signaled to his forehead with his beak. No one else in the square had even brought it up except for Kangaskhan and Snubbull. Ginji wondered why that was. Then again, no one except Snubull had brought up Pikachu's cut. Though it was a tiny cut, and wasn't noticeable in the slightest except if you looked really hard enough for some creepy reason. Or were a grouchy critic like the pink bulldog. Perhaps the Pokémon in the square were used to seeing injuries on other Pokémon, taking the rescue team work, Pokémon battles, and recent disasters into account. So maybe everyone was seeing it, but not saying anything because they just dismissed it as a normal scar. It was still odd. A giant X shaped scar isn't exactly what Ginji would call normal. Even the way Kangaskhan asked him about it indicated that it was an unusual one. It was clear that Kangaskhan was the kind who pointed these things out. Mother's intuition most likely.

 

"Funny, no one's really asked me about it until now. I don't actually remember." Ginji answered _. "That should do it. Anyone could forget exactly how they got a scar. I just hope she doesn't ask more about it or Pikachu doesn't go more into it."_

 

"You don't remember?"

 

"Well, you see Auntie Kangaskhan…" Pikachu began. "Ginji's-"

 

"Really forgetful, I know." Ginji clamped his foot over Pikachu's mouth. "I'd forget my head if it wasn't screwed on to my neck."

 

"Oh. Alright then." Kangaskhan said wearily. Though Ginji was sure she knew there was something else. Well, clamping his foot over Pikachu's mouth suddenly was a good start in looking suspicious.

 

Ginji gave Pikachu a desperate look that screamed 'don't say anything' while shaking his head. Pikachu nodded slowly, getting the message. Ginji released his foot from Pikachu's mouth.

 

"Ginji is quite an unusual name though. Most Pokèmon just go by the name of our species." Kangaskhan said.

 

" _And if there's more than one of the species living in the area? Do they call one of them Pidgey or Tailow two?"_ Ginji smirked to himself.

 

He then though of a white lie. Something that wouldn't arouse anymore suspicions about him. The quick one that came to him would do.

 

"It's actually a human name."

 

"A human name?" Kangaskhan grew a mildly shocked expression on her face.

 

Pikachu's smiling face started turning into a slightly uneasy one. Like Ginji had just said something off putting. Which he probably had.

 

''That's right. My dad was actually badly injured some time before I was born.'' Ginji went on, trying to make the story as convincing as he could.

 

''He means hatched.'' Pikachu quickly informed Kangaskhan.

 

''I see.'' Kangaskhan nodded.

 

Ginji gave Pikachu an annoyed glance before continuing his tale.

 

''Anyway, he was injured and a human found him and helped him recover. I think the human's name was Ginji.'' He concluded. ''So when I was 'hatched'''-he emphasized the word to correct himself right next to a certain electric mouse in order to avoid said electric mouse doing it for him again-''my parents decided to name me Ginji. Sort of like a tribute.''

 

''My, that is quite the…'' Kangaskhan didn't do the best job at hiding her nervous expression if she was even trying to at all as she tried to come up with the appropriate word to describe Ginji's story. ''story.'' She finally finished with. ''It was quite interesting though.

 

''Thanks mam. I guess.'' Ginji replied. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Pikachu gritting his teeth while a bead of sweat ran down the side of his face.

 

''I have to ask dear, where do you and your parents live? This is the first time I've seen you around here.''

 

'' _Oh crud. This might be a tough one.''_

 

''Um… we just moved here… so we're still looking for a place to-'' Ginji began, pausing between his words as he tried to come up with another brilliant lie.

 

''He doesn't know where his parents are. I found him unconscious just outside of Tiny Woods.'' Pikachu stopped Ginji to explain the cold truth.

 

'' _And lucky me, I just happen to have a guy who gives me an even tougher time with this kind of stuff right next to me.''_  Ginji groaned to himself.

 

''He has a bit of amnesia. He can't remember much about what happened before waking up here. All he knows is that he's been separated from his parents or anyone who really knew him in general I guess.'' Ginji didn't try to stop Pikachu from telling the story. He just sighed heavily to himself as he thought how much more awkward he and Pikachu could make his situation and their conversations whenever he met more local Pokémon. To be fair, Pikachu was sort of fibbing for him. Ginji never mentioned anything to him about his parents. He only rambled on about how he used to be a human before. Not that he would ever admit this to Pikachu, but whatever respect he currently had for the mouse had risen up a bit due to him not making the used-to-be-human chick Pokémon 'the insane Torchic kid who raves on about how he's a human'.

 

''He doesn't remember how, but I promised I'd help him find them.'' Pikachu finished.

 

''Oh, dear.'' Kangaskhan fretted. ''I certainly hope you find them soon. I can't imagine what it must be like for someone your age to be separated from family and friends without any knowledge of where they are.''

 

The baby Kangaskhan in her pouch clutched onto its mother, shaking. Clearly out of child fear of parental abandonment or separation.

 

''Don't worry. I'm fine.'' Ginji told her. ''I'm sure we'll find someone who knows me soon.''

 

''Is there anything I can do to help?'' Kangaskhan asked.

 

Ginji didn't even need to open his mouth to start to say no, because Pikachu was already yakking away as usual.

 

''Actually, there is. Whenever anyone comes up to your warehouse, could you ask them if they know a young Torchic named Ginji and let us know if anyone does? It'll make the search a whole lot easier.''

 

''Of course, Pikachu dear.'' She nodded with a smile.

 

''We should really get going now. Thank you so much, Auntie Kangaskhan.'' Pikachu said. ''C'mon, Ginj.'' Pikachu gently grabbed Ginji's side and started to pull him away from the warehouse.

 

''Hey, watch it! Quit grabbing me all the time!'' Ginji protested while being pulled along.

 

''Anytime, dearie. It was a pleasure to meet you, Ginji. Come back anytime. You're always welcome.'' Kangaskhan waved to the duo making their way to the tree not far from the warehouse.

 

''Anytime at all!'' The baby Kangaskhan squeaked in its tiny voice.

 

''Ow! Ow! Ow!'' Ginji whined as Pikachu pulled him behind the tree. ''what's with the grabbing?''

 

''I didn't grab or pull you hard.'' Pikachu told him. There was something different about his tone of voice. It was kind of a mixture of annoyance and uneasiness. There was obviously a reason why Pikachu pulled him behind this tree. ''I need to talk to you about something.''

 

''Let me guess. It's about that story thing isn't it?''

 

''Yeah, it is.'' There was a stern tone in Pikachu's voice that kind of bothered Ginji. Something he wouldn't expect from Pikachu. ''What was that back there?!''

 

''What was what back there?''

 

''That thing you said!''

 

''Gonna have to be a bit more specific there, Pikachu. I said a lot of things back there. Frankly, I was thinking about how Kangaskhan and the baby in its pouch is considered one Pokémon.'' Ginji joked. ''Do Kangaskhan hatch from their eggs as adults with babies in their pouch? Does the baby ever get any older? Personally I think the baby should be considered a separate-''

 

''Ginji, this is serious!'' Pikachu snapped, clearly not in the mood for jokes. ''That story you told about your dad and how he named you after a human. What was that all about?!''

 

''I dunno. Needed to come up with something, didn't I?'' Ginji shrugged.

 

''Well, the next time you 'think of something', could you maybe lay off the mention of humans? Most Pokémon around here don't know how to react or what to think when they're brought up. Heck, a lot of us have never come face to face with, let alone seen one before. It's a…'' Pikachu paused for a moment, and rubbed his paws together behind his back. A few beads of sweat dripped down his forehead. ''Well, it's kind of a scary topic, Ginj.'' Pikachu finished his sentence with. He called Ginji by his newly given nickname. Ginji figured it was to help make his statement seem less unsettling for Ginji, though maybe it ended up doing the opposite.

 

''So you're saying most of you are… afraid of humans?''

 

Pikachu slowly nodded. ''Some of the Pokémon around here might even have a bit of a prejudice against them, based on how I've seen them react and the looks they make every so often humans are brought into a conversation.''

 

''Yeah, well have they ever met one?'' Ginji asked, growing slightly passive aggressive. He wasn't exactly going to take prejudice against him lightly.

 

''How should I know? I don't push them further by asking them that.'' Pikachu squirmed a bit a Ginji's change in tone. His nervousness shortly turned into curiosity over Ginji's question. ''Come to think of it, I never thought to.''

 

''You might want to sometime.'' Ginji told him. ''How can someone have a dislike for someone or something if they've never met them or saw it with their own eyes?'' Ginji proceeded to challenge.

 

''I think it has more to do with fear of the unknown. Pokémon are scared of things they have no knowledge of, or things that are different than them.'' Pikachu explained.

 

'' _Just like people.''_  Ginji thought.

 

''Have you ever met one?'' Ginji pressed on. He felt a pang of regret after asking his new partner that. He pressed his teeth together, preparing for how Pikachu would react to that one.

 

Pikachu's ears twitched at Ginji's question. He gave Ginji a look that told the chick he was really unsure how to answer him, or even if he wanted to.

 

''I don't want to talk about this anymore.'' Pikachu told him. He grabbed at his stomach as if he was beginning to feel sick.

 

Ginji knew he should stop there. Stop and change the subject. However the guilt that he felt just a few seconds ago and was now starting to bite at him was being overshadowed by a voice in the back of his head that kept saying  _'Go on. Ask him more. You're a human. You need to know his opinion on them. He is your partner, after all.'_

 

''What are your thoughts on humans? Do they scare you too?'' Ginji asked, listening to that nagging little voice.

 

''Ginji, I said I don't want to talk about this anymore, can you just give it a rest?'' Pikachu was growing annoyed now. He turned his back to Ginji and sat down.

 

' _Keep on asking. Try to get something out of him!"_  The voice practically screeched at him now.

 

''Do I scare you? Do you think I'm weird? You did say I was a little odd when you met me. In fact, you still keep saying that.''

 

Pikachu pulled his arms from his belly and shot his ears into the air. He quickly turned his head around to Ginji. ''What have YOU got to do with humans?!'' Pikachu demanded before stopping to think. ''Ginji, if this is about that whole 'I used to be a human' nonsense, I don't want to hear it! Now drop it!''

 

' _He doesn't believe you! Say something else!'_  Ginji couldn't take it anymore. That damn voice plus the irritation caused by the electric rodent still not listening to his claim was too much for him to listen to the guilt and the other voice that was begging him to stop upsetting Pikachu.

 

''You really don't believe me, huh? You think I'm crazy just because of my amnesia, don't you?!''

 

''Ginji, Drop it! You're scaring me!''

 

''I'M scaring YOU?! I woke up in a place with no memory of where I came from or who I am, as a TORCHIC by the way, with a Pokémon talking to me. The first thing I had to do when I woke up was help you rescue a little kid who fell into a fissure because his mother couldn't be bothered to watch him properly, or to go back and get him, because you dragged me into that without asking me how I felt about it! On top of that, I hear about these natural disasters happening everywhere, I join a team where I have to venture into caves and forests-getting injured in the process-all to rescue complete strangers, and now here I am in a square full of talking Pokémon where I'm supposed to talk back to them and act like this is completely normal!'' Ginji vented out all his frustrations and what he had been holding in for the past three days right then and there.

 

''I said drop it!'' Pikachu cried out in anger and fear. He jumped off his feet and faced Ginji, directly looking at him in the eye.

 

Ginji backed away a few steps, slightly unnerved. He hadn't spent a long time with Pikachu, but the last thing he expected from him was the fierce look the mouse was giving him now. He had seen Pikachu upset the other day in Thunderwave Cave, and he was sure he would see him angry eventually, but he certainly didn't think it would be this soon, nor did he think that the friendly electric Pokémon could get this mad.

 

Pikachu must have noticed the slight fear in his chick friend's eyes because his own dotted ones returned their classic friendly and cute appearance.

 

'' _Of course it doesn't last for long.'_ ' Ginji thought to himself. Pikachu was way too nice to let anger get the best of him.

 

Pikachu sighed. ''Ginji. Can we just stop talking about this, please?''

 

That awful voice that kept pestering him was finally gone. ''OK. Sorry.''

 

''Don't worry about it. I kind of overreacted there.''

 

'' _Jeez, poor guy blames himself.''_  Ginji thought sadly. The guilt that was biting at him earlier was beginning to trickle back.

 

''Look, Ginji.'' Pikachu began. ''I really want to help you get your memory back. I know how scary this must be for you. If I lost my memory, I'd be pretty freaked out too. I don't know exactly how we'll get it back or how long it will take, but I promise you we'll get it back. I do know this though. Yelling at one another, and complaining isn't going to bring us any closer to finding out who you are. We have to keep our spirits high. Agreed?'' Pikachu turned to his friend with a smile.

 

It took a moment for Ginji to respond, but the determined look in Pikachu's eyes complete with his trademark smile made him realize he was glad Pikachu was back to his optimistic self that he had started to become accustomed to. ''Agreed.''

 

Pikachu gave Ginji a little nod to let him know he appreciated the (somewhat) shared spirit.

 

''What do you say we call it a day? I think you've had quite the tour this afternoon.'' Pikachu suggested.

 

Ginji thought for a moment. ''Usually I would say finally he gets it, but I kind of want to see how Caterpie's doing.''

 

Pikachu's smile grew wider. He got into another one of his 'ready to run off' stances. ''Well in that case, follow me.''

 

Just as Ginji predicted, Pikachu was bolting north of the square, with Ginji stumbling about trying to keep up with him. Oddly though, it didn't bother Ginji at all. This was most likely going to be their usual method of getting to and from places for a long time, so he figured now would be a perfect time to start getting used to this routine.

 

''If you thought Caterpie was a cute little guy, wait until you meet my little brother.'' Pikachu told Ginji from a few feet ahead of him.

 

''You have a little brother?''

* * *

 

Charmander and Chikorita watched with anticipation as the blob of blue that was their friend zipped around underneath the pond water. Squirtle had been splashing about in the water; practicing his swimming skills and water moves since they had arrived at Whiscash Pond that afternoon. On the left side of the path leading to the pond opposite to where Charmander and Chikorita were standing, an Eevee was watching the blue turtle as well, with the same anticipation the other two members of Team Go-Getters dawned. Next to her were two smaller Pokémon. One was a small yellow mouse with two big triangular ears, and the other; fuzzy, green, and caterpillar-esque. The two youngsters' eyes were filled with awe. Their heads zipped along with the turtle Pokémon's movement underwater. The five of them eagerly waited for Squirtle to pop up from underneath the pond's surface, ready for whichever side he would arise from. Whiscash had somehow dozed off during the time Squirtle was swimming in the pond, and was now floating peacefully on the surface with a relaxed smile on his face. Of course Squirtle took advantage of swimming around and underneath Wishcash's large sleeping form.

 

After a solid couple minutes of racing to and from one side of the pond to another, Squirtle popped up on the left side of the pond with his cheeks puffed out. He let out whatever he was holding inside his mouth, turning out to be multiple bubbles. The bubble first escaped his mouth by floating up at a rapid pace in a line, before separating once they were high enough in the air. They then gently floated above the pond, catching the sun's rays and creating a pretty effect as a result. It looked as if the bubbles were sparkling as the sun shone down on them. This continued until the bubbles popped, resulting in another neat sight. Droplets of water fell down from the former bubbles, also catching the rays of the sun, which made it look like the drops were tiny sparkles raining down back into the pond.

 

Eevee in particular was amazed by this. ''That was a great bubble, Squirtle. I think yours are the best.''

 

Pichu clapped while jumping up and down in amazement. Caterpie just stared with his usual sparkling eyes and stated; ''so coooool.'' Like most very young Pokémon, those two were entertained by many attacks and moves.

 

Squirtle's cheeks grew red at Eevee's compliment. He rubbed the back of his head, flattered. ''Aww, thanks.'' He removed his hand and opened his eyes just in time to look up at his remaining bubbles to get a glimpse of what they looked like in the afternoon sun. ''You're right. My bubbles sure are pretty.''

 

''Awesome bubble, Squirtle.'' Charmander congratulated him from across the pond. His friend gave him a small thumbs up.

 

''Very impressive.'' Chikorita beamed at him.

 

Squirtle flushed at all the praise he was getting. He wasn't necessarily used to getting it, so it was kind of a big deal for him. He suddenly thought of what move he promised himself he would learn next, and decided to make his next performance his big shot.

 

''This time I'm going to do water gun!'' He exclaimed to everyone.

 

''That's what you said the first fifteen times you tried to use it, Squirtle.'' Chikorita reminded him. ''You sure you'll be able to do it this time? Your bubble is great, but I don't know if you're quite ready to use water gun yet.''

 

''Those times were all before I perfected that last bubble, Chikorita. Now that it's better than it ever was before, I'm sure I can do water gun if I try it this time.'' Squirtle confided in himself.

 

''C'mon, Chikorita. At least give him another chance. He's not going to learn it any sooner if he doesn't keep practicing it.'' Charmander pointed out to her. ''And it would really help if you had a bit more faith in him.'' Charmander added quiet enough for only her to hear.

 

''You can do it, Squirtle!'' Caterpie encouraged him.

 

''Water gun! Water gun! Water gun! Water gun!'' Pichu chanted in enthusiasm.

 

Chikorita nodded upon viewing the other Pokémon's thoughts on the turtle attempting the much needed water gun. She rolled her eyes before saying; ''Good luck, Squirtle.''

 

''You got this.'' Eevee contributed.

 

''Alright. See you guys in a few.'' He called before taking in a gulp of air, and plopping back underneath the water.

 

''Five berries says he's gonna do it.'' Pichu bet.

 

Eevee started to watch her friend swim underneath the water once more, before she heard feet pattering against the ground accompanied with the sound of dirt dust being kicked up behind her. She didn't even need to turn around to see who was causing said noises. She waited for the Pokémon she knew to skid to a halt behind her.

 

''Hello, Pikachu.''

 

''Hey, Eevee.'' Pikachu greeted back.

 

''Pikachu's here?!'' Caterpie asked with glee. He turned around to look for his new idol.

 

Pichu turned excitedly to face his older brother. ''Pikachu!'' He cried out, before bolting on all fours to the older and taller mouse. Pikachu rose to his two feet just so he could be knocked onto his back by the tiny mouse with an astonishing amount of strength who had just leapt at his torso.

 

''Whoah!'' The older mouse yelped as he tumbled to the ground, clutching Pichu against his chest.

 

''Hey, little bro. I swear you're getting stronger every day.'' Pikachu laughed while ruffling the fur on the younger rodent's head.

 

Caterpie slithered over to them as fast as he could.

 

''Hi, Pikachu.'' He smiled up at the Pokémon who had saved him a couple days ago.

 

''Hey there, Caterpie. How you doing, little guy?'' He softly patted the young caterpillar's head.

 

Eevee smiled at the brotherly ordeal between the electric rodents along with Caterpie's joy over seeing Pikachu before being interrupted from watching it by an unfamiliar young voice. She turned to find the source of it. She was given the sight of a Torchic with an X shaped scar on his forehead running into the pond clearing, and crashing down on the ground on he had stopped.

 

''I swear Pikachu…you are gonna be… responsible for…my death one day.'' The Torchic panted.

 

''Um…who are you? I don't think I've seen you around here before.'' Eevee asked out of nowhere.

 

''Ginji.'' The chick answered in a huff before rising to his feet very slowly. ''And you must be…'' He looked at her for a few seconds, pretending he had heard of her before and was guessing who she was. ''Eevee.''

 

''Yep. That's what I am.'' Eevee answered, a bit thrown off by Ginji's sudden wise guy behaviour. ''Ginji?'' She pondered over the name curiously. ''That's-''

 

''An odd name for a Torchic, I know.'' He quickly cut her off. ''Believe me, I've heard it enough today to know you'll say it, and I'll probably keep hearing it for a long time.''

 

Eevee just flicked her ear out of confusion. This Torchic was weird, that was for sure.

 

Ginji looked down at the two laughing electric rodents. The two were rubbing their face cheeks together while Pichu was on Pikachu's chest, causing a small spark of electricity to rush out from the dots on each cheek. Ginji found it to be sort of a neat way for electric Pokémon to greet one another. Weird, but neat.

 

''So this is your brother?'' Ginji asked Pikachu.

 

''No, I just went up and rubbed cheeks with a random Pichu who tackled me-of course he's my brother.'' Pikachu joked lightly. Albeit, it was a bit of a stupid question.

 

'' _So this is why he's good with little kids. I thought it was just a coincidence. Or the fact that he's everybody's best friend. That seems like an obvious reason as well.''_

 

''Ginji!'' Caterpie squealed. ''You're here too!"

 

''Yep, I sure am.'' Ginji confirmed to the young Pokémon.

 

''This Torchic a friend of yours, Pikachu?'' Eevee asked him.

 

''Yeah.'' Pikachu stopped for a moment. During his pause he gently lifted Pichu off of him and set him back on the ground beside him and Caterpie. ''Well, he's a new friend. New teammate actually.''

 

''Teammate? You mean you've finally formed a rescue team? Nice!''

 

''I sure have. Ginji and I did. We're rescue team Heroes.''

 

''I suggested team Barbeque, but Pikachu didn't want me to let him live the fact that he fried me down.'' Ginji told her.

 

''Nope. Especially not in our team name.'' Pikachu jeered at him.

 

Eevee just nodded with a small smile, not knowing what to think of the story she had heard, or Ginji for that matter.

 

''You're a real rescue team now?!'' Caterpie gasped in excitement. ''So cool!''

 

Caterpie gained that heart melting, disgustingly adorable sparkle in his eyes again. Ginji shirked in embarrassment. Judging by Eevee's similar reaction, she must have seen quite a bit of this from Caterpie.

 

''These guys saved me when I fell into a big hole in Tiny Woods! They're the best!''

 

''That must have been so cool, Pikachu. Caterpie's told me all about it!'' Pichu told him.

 

'' _Of course he did.''_  Ginji thought without saying.

 

''Aw, it was nothing, really. I keep saying that.'' Pikachu humbled. ''Let's talk about you guys. I see you two have become fast friends.''

 

''Yep. I met Pichu yesterday. When I found out that he was your little brother, I was so excited. I told him all about what you did for me in Tiny Woods and how you should be in a rescue team.'' Caterpie explained.

 

''I told Caterpie that you've been wanting to form one for quite a while anyway. Then we talked about how awesome it must be to be part of a rescue team. I told him about some of the best teams out there.'' Pichu informed his brother.

 

''Glad you two got along so well with one another. Especially over your love of rescue teams. Speaking of which, Caterpie; Ginji and I saving you was just what I needed to form ours. You sort of even inspired our team name.''

 

''I did?'' Caterpie's eyes sparkled once more.

 

''Yep. Ginji said he felt like he was being viewed as a hero in your eyes. When he told me that, I realized I felt the same way too. So we became Team Heroes mostly thanks to you.''

 

''Wow! I inspired a team name!'' Caterpie squirmed around happily before stopping to think about something. ''What does 'inspired' mean?''

 

''It means you give someone ideas or help them with their own things. Whether you know it or not.'' Pikachu explained to him.

 

''Oh. Ok.'' Caterpie nodded. Pikachu hoped he got it enough.

 

''So what's new, Eves?'' Pikachu asked Eevee, addressing her by an apparent nickname.

 

''Squirtle's trying to learn water gun. And I'm not quite sure, but I think the others are betting on whether he'll do it or not.''

 

''Sure hope he can do it today. He's been trying to do it for quite a while now.'' Pikachu gave his input on the subject.

 

''Hope so too.'' Eevee agreed.

 

Just as if Squirtle had heard them from underwater, the blue form of the tiny turtle Pokémon shot up from the surface on the right side of the pond with a mouthful of water, flinging his arms in the air along with his body while pumping the water out of his mouth and into the air above him. In return, some of the pond water surrounding him was hurled in Charmander and Chikorita's direction. Charmander reacted quickly to the water heading his way. He curled himself up in a fetal position, laying front flat on the ground with his eyes squeezed shut and his face tucked into his tail-which was now curled around the side of his body. Chikorita reacted just as quickly as her friend. She whipped the leaf on her head to the side, holding it above Charmander's curled up body to prevent any of the water from getting on him. The pond water rained down on the two of them, with Chikorita's leaf catching most of it, and letting it dribble to the ground behind Charmander so the fire lizard kept dry.

 

Ginji noticed just how interesting the leaf on a Chikorita's head really was. It was just big enough to shield Charmander from getting poured on, though not too small either. It was surprisingly strong enough to stay held up during that big splash. It seemed to act as the perfect shelter for smaller Pokémon. There was even a bit of water that floated inside the leaf. Chikorita emptied the remaining nit of water from her leaf and let it dribble back into the pond. It wasn't just Chikorita's leaf that caught Ginji's attention though. The flame on Charmander's tail flickered rapidly while the water had come crashing down on them a few seconds before. Now that the water was no longer coming down, the flame's flickering started to calm down, before burning normally as Charmander realized it was over and opened his eyes again. The flickering of the flame was a lot like the fast beating of a heart. It was as if the flame on the lizard's tail was in sync with his heart. Ginji wondered if that was legitimately the case. He concluded that this was another upside to being a Pokémon. It seemed he would be learning new things about them each day.

 

''Thanks, Chikorita.'' Charmander thanked his friend, still quivering.

 

''Anytime.''

 

''Watch it, Squirtle!'' Charmander warned him sternly after he had picked himself up off the ground. ''I told you to watch where you're splashing before we came here! You do realize there's a fire type at this pond, don't ya? Whose flame can't go out!'' He pointed to his tail to emphasize his point.

 

''Oh, no! Sorry Charmander.'' Squirtle hung his head back into the pond guiltily. His eyes drooped and he sunk himself in the water a bit. He generally sounded sorry for what he had done.

 

''You need to be careful next time, Squirtle.'' Chikorita scolded. ''Keep it mind, some of that's been in your mouth too. Gross!''

 

''Yeah, I know.'' Squirtle said sadly. He rubbed the back of his head for a quick second before a smile started to form on his face. ''I finally used water gun, though! Did you guys see it? Pretty impressive, Huh?'' Squirtle falsely boasted.

 

''Nice try, Squirtle. Any Pokémon with half a brain knows that spitting pond water out of your mouth isn't a proper water gun.'' Eevee teased him.

 

''Aww, c'mon Eevee. You didn't have to remind me like that. For a second I thought I could actually do it this time.'' Squirtle sighed.

 

''Just great! Now I owe your team five berries.'' Pichu whined to Chikorita.

 

''Hey, Cheer up Squirtle. You'll learn water gun soon, I'm sure.'' Pikachu consoled him.

 

''Soon sometimes doesn't feel soon enough.'' Squirtle muttered.

 

Eevee felt sorry for her friend at this point. She looked at the faces of the other Pokémon around her. They all seemed to feel just as disappointed for Squirtle as her. Even Charmander and Chikorita who had just received a shower from him (or at least Chikorita did) looked like they wanted him to learn water gun just as much as he himself did. Eevee then thought of something that would lighten the mood.

 

''Hey, Squirtle. Why don't you make some more of those pretty bubbles.''

 

''I don't know if I'm really in the mood for bubbles, Eevee.'' He told her.

 

''Oh, C'mon Squirtle.'' Charmander said. ''They're cool.''

 

''They sure are something.'' Chikorita agreed.

 

''Please, Mr. Squirtle. Pretty Please.'' Caterpie begged, eyes sparkling AGAIN.

 

''Bubbles! Bubbles! Bubbles!'' Pichu chanted much like he had done with 'water gun'.

 

Squirtle looked around at his friends who were cheering for his beloved bubble. His spirits lifted a bit. The smile he had before came back to him.

 

''Ok, if you insist.''

 

He puffed out his cheeks, and shaped his mouth into a hole. He gently blew in the same way a human child would blow at a bubble wand. The same line of bubbles from before flew out of his mouth before slowing down and drifting away from one another. The bubbles once again caught the sun's rays, and the sparkling effect from before was even more profound thanks to the now setting sun. It looked as if the bubbles were shining as well.

 

''Ya know, they're still pretty.'' Squirtle smiled.

 

''They always will be.'' Chikorita reminded him.

 

Pikachu watched the bubbles pop and the droplets of water akin to tiny sparkles rain down into the pond. He never grew tired of Squirtle's bubbles. Especially not during a sunset. The scene of shiny bubbles floating over Whiscash pond against a red sky would forever be one of his favorite images. He glanced over at Ginji, just to see how the Torchic was taking in this beautiful sight. He caught the sun shining in his partner's eyes, making it seem like they were twinkling. There was something about the way Ginji looked right now. This actually marked the first time Pikachu had seen him relaxed. No sarcastic, rude, or insensitive remarks, no panicking, and no worrying. He was just watching Squirtle's bubbles with the same glint in his eyes that the others had in theirs. It was then Pikachu learned about the true effect a simple Pokemon's abilities could have on others. Squirtle's pretty bubbles were even enchanting Ginji, someone who Pikachu was sure would have dismissed them as 'boring old bubbles'. Pikachu was glad his new teammate wasn't a total cynic and could actually enjoy something this world had to offer him.

 

''That was actually pretty awesome.'' Ginji spoke up to break the silence once the bubbles had all popped.

 

Squirtle looked at the chick Pokémon upon hearing his unfamiliar voice.

 

''Oh, you're that Torchic who was with Pikachu today in the square. Nice to meet ya.'' Squirtle greeted.

 

''Yep.''

 

It was then that Charmander and Chikorita actually acknowledged Pikachu and Ginji's presence at the pond as well.

 

''Oh, hi Pikachu. Sorry we didn't really notice you here before.'' Chikorita apologized. ''We were kind of busy waiting for Squirtle to resurface again.''

 

''It's fine.'' Pikachu let her know.

 

She then looked at Ginji.

 

''I haven't seen you around before, Torchic.''

 

''That's because-''

 

''His name's Ginji.'' Caterpie slithered over to the group. ''He's now part of Team Heroes. Isn't that cool?''

 

''You guys have formed a rescue team? Awesome!'' Charmander congratulated him.

 

''Now we'll have another new team to grow stronger with.'' Squirtle said. ''Ginji, though? That's a funny name.'' Squirtle brought attention to the Torchic's 'bizarre' name.

 

Charmander and Chikorita couldn't help but chuckle a bit at this. Eevee and Pichu made their way over to the rest of the group after hearing said chuckling.

 

''It is, isn't it?'' Pichu giggled.

 

Ginji's eyes sunk in irritation. ''Yeah yeah, I have a 'weird' name, I get it. It gets kind of old hearing that after a while, y'know?''

 

''Sorry.'' Squirtle replied not sounding all to apologetic this time around.

 

''Anyway, those bubbles were pretty awesome.'' Ginji told Squirtle, deciding to draw attention away from his name and back to the turtle's bubbles. Sure it was nice to be the talk of the town, but not necessarily in this way.

 

''Yeah, but when I learn water gun that'll be even more awesome.'' Squirtle stopped to consider something. ''Well, if I learn it.''

 

''Squirtle, c'mon. You'll learn it, I know you will.'' Pikachu consoled him for a second time.

 

''I believe in you, Squirtle.'' Caterpie told him with a smile.

 

''Yeah, me too!'' Pichu piped in.

 

''Hey, at least you can use a move that matches your typing.'' Ginji decided to give Squirtle encouragement in a different way. A way that involved much hated self-depreciation, but another way none the less. The last thing Ginji wanted to hear was a cheesy speech about how Squirtle could do it if he really tried and believed in himself.

 

''Oh, that's a good thing to point out, Ginj.'' Pikachu teased.

 

''Thank you, Pikachu. Good to know you're really supportive of me.''

 

''You mean you don't know a fire type move yet?'' Pichu asked in shock.

 

''Nope. Hate to admit it, but nope.''

 

''Wow. I guess I'm kind of lucky then.'' Squirtle realized.

 

''So what moves do you know then, Ginji?'' Eevee asked out of curiosity.

 

''Scratch and leer. I don't even know peck yet.''

 

Ginji noticed a small smirk on Pikachu's face.

 

''Oh no. What are you thinking about Pikachu?''

 

''Oh, nothing much. Just a funny story about our first mission rescuing Caterpie that I'll never forget.''

 

''Oh, I would love to hear it, Pikachu!'' Caterpie cheered. ''It was so cool when you rescued me! I want to hear more''

 

''This I got to hear!'' Squirtle exclaimed swimming to the edge of the pond and hoisting himself out of the water and onto the grass.

 

''I want to hear it too!'' Pichu exclaimed.

 

''Hey, I wouldn't mind either.'' Eevee said.

 

''Me neither. Please do tell it, Pikachu.'' Chikorita gleamed.

 

''Please don't.'' Ginji begged. ''Pikachu, promise me you will not tell them about that Pidgey thing or the Sunkern thing.''

 

''I dunno, Ginj. Everyone else seems interested.''

 

''Cross your heart you won't tell?''

 

''Can't do that this time. That's only for promises I intend to keep.'' Pikachu told him with a mischievous glint in his eye. He turned to Pichu and Caterpie. ''What do you think, kids? Should I tell it?''

 

''Yes!'' They answered almost immediately together.

 

''Everyone else?''

 

''You know it!'' Charmander answered.

 

''Go on, tell it!'' Eevee urged him.

 

The looks Squirtle and Chikorita gave him told him he didn't need their answers at all. They wanted to hear this tale just as much as Pichu and Caterpie.

 

Pikachu turned back to his team mate. ''Sorry, pal. You're outnumbered. It's story time.''

 

''What did I ever do to you?'' Ginji asked him defeated.

 

''Nothing. It's just that, I don't think my stories would be nearly as entertaining without a few jokes at your expense.'' Pikachu snickered, after trying to say that as innocently as he could.

 

''Love you too, Pikachu.''

 

''Hey, I did just say I couldn't tell the most entertaining stories if it weren't for you. So technically I made a joke at my own expense as well.''

 

''Oh, thanks Pikachu. I'm so glad my humiliation gives your stories meaning.''

 

''Anytime, pal.'' Pikachu chuckled.

 

Ginji had debated over asking Pikachu why he was calling him 'pal' all of a sudden. Just as he had over asking the electric mouse what was with the nickname 'Ginj'. He decided not to in the end. He supposed it could be worse. At least he wasn't calling him something stupid like 'gingersnap' or an overly cutesy pet name like 'ginji-winj'. Now that wouldn't seem like Pikachu at all which made the mere thought of that quite disturbing.

 

Right now Ginji had his mind set on something else. As he watched the five Pokemon besides Pikachu gather around him to listen to the shocking tale about their Caterpie rescue while laughing at the gibes the two members of team Heroes had been throwing at each other, he knew he was helpless at this point. He would be forced to relive his embarrassment of being pecked by a Pidgey, and nearly made a fool out of in front of a group of Sunkern. All while Pikachu would be enjoying every second of it whether it being out of intention due to a hidden malicious side of the yellow mouse, or the usually well intentioned side of him just wanting to tell a fun story and have a good laugh with others.

 

Either way, Ginji was now wishing they were giving Squirtle a cheesy speech about believing in himself instead.

* * *

 

Ginji slumped down deeper into the ground as Pikachu went further into the story. By the time the other Pokémon were in complete hysterics over barbequed chicken, aggressive Sunkern, and epically failed fire attacks. They must have been laughing a bit too hard, because Ginji heard a yawn doubled with the sound of rustling water from the pond.

 

''Must you children be so loud?'' A deep, elderly voice yawned. ''You woke me up.''

 

''Sorry, Whiscash.'' Eevee apologized to the big blue Pokemon after pulling herself together. ''Pikachu was telling us a pretty interesting story.'' The way she described the story as 'pretty interesting' was a clear understatement, made clear by the innocent tone in her voice.

 

''Is that so?'' Whiscash turned to Pikachu. ''I hope you're aware that I'm the one who's supposed to be telling the stories around here, Pikachu. I certainly hope you're not after my job now.'' Whiscash joked, letting out a hearty chuckle.

 

''I don't think you have anything to worry about, Whiscash. After all, you know just about every story and legend there is. All I have are stories about Ginji. I have a really good feeling the legends are the ones Pokémon will want be coming here for.'' Pikachu joked back.

 

Ginji stuck his tongue out at his partner.

 

''Well, that's a relief.'' Whiscash smiled. He looked to the Torchic who had just showed his tongue. ''Ginji? Is that your name, young Torchic? It's quite an interesting one.''

 

''Thanks. I think that's the first time anyone around here has called my name interesting instead of weird.'' Ginji mused.

 

''Really?'' Whiscash did sound surprised there. ''It's not every day you meet a Pokémon with a name other than their species. And a human one at that.''

 

The last comment irked Ginji a bit. The other Pokémon had calmed down and slowly stopped laughing moments before. Eevee, Pikachu, Chikorita, and Charmander had a similar reaction. As if they didn't know what to think at the mention of humans. Caterpie, Pichu, and Squirtle on the other hand generally seemed interested at the mention of the word.

 

''Ginji's a human name? That's pretty neat! I just thought it was a random word your parents thought up of or something.'' Squirtle gushed.

 

''How'd you get it?'' Pichu eagerly asked.

 

''Well, I… I don't exactly remember…'' Ginji stuttered trying to think of a reasonable way to explain his name, but he had nothing. His feathers flared a bit under pressure.

 

''That's the problem. He doesn't know because-'' Pikachu stopped explaining to think about what he was about to say. He turned to his partner to meet his eyes. Ginji noticed a bit of realization in them. And the way he looked at the chick Pokémon told him that the mouse Pokémon needed something important from him before he could continue his sentence.

 

''Actually, I think it's best if I get permission from Ginji to continue this.''

 

Ginji's top feathers flicked in surprise. Pikachu was actually asking for his consent to tell other Pokémon about his identity crisis rather than blabbering about it wherever and whenever he wanted for once. Ginji wasn't exactly sure how Pikachu had come to the conclusion that maybe the chick turned human wasn't entirely comfortable with him telling the whole town about his condition. Perhaps it had something to do with the short outburst he had in the square earlier over the topic of humans. Either way, Ginji didn't care as long as Pikachu was beginning to take his thoughts into account. Even if the mouse Pokémon didn't necessarily mean to disregard Ginji's feelings to begin with and only told others about his partner's problem in order to help; thinking about what information he was giving others about his teammate before giving them it was a start.

 

Ginji didn't think there was anything especially wrong about other Pokémon knowing he had amnesia. As long as he left the 'I was once a human' part out. If Pikachu didn't believe him on that one, there was no point in telling anyone else about it. They would most likely laugh it off as a story or think he was insane and needed mental help of some sort. But surely it wouldn't hurt to fib a little about not knowing why he had a human name. Waking up in a forest with no memory of anything except your name which happens to be a human one seemed pretty plausible. Though he didn't want to let Pikachu tell this story all the time. Ginji decided it was for the best if he told others about his condition himself whenever needed. This was the first of those many times to come.

 

''You know what? You take a break from storytelling. I'll tell them myself.'' Ginji answered him.

 

Pikachu gave him a smile and nodded. ''Sure.''

 

Pikachu stepped aside so Ginji could take his place as 'storyteller' around the gathered young Pokémon.

 

''A few days ago, I woke up in Tiny Woods and met Pikachu.'' Ginji began, pointing to his companion with his foot. ''Well, more accurately, he woke me up. And you know what comes next.'' Ginji continued, thinking of Pikachu's recollections of their first battles.

 

''Anyway, we did eventually rescue Caterpie, and formed a rescue team because of Pikachu here.'' He gave his fellow team member a cheeky glance. ''But the real problem is- I have amnesia.''

 

The other Pokémon's smiles disappeared. Even Whiscash moved closer to shore and gained a worrisome expression on his face.

 

''Yeah. I don't know where I come from, who my family and friends were before, what happened to me before I ended up in Tiny Woods, or why I have a name like Ginji. I just do.''

 

''You don't know who are? That's dumb.'' Pichu puffed.

 

''Now Pichu…'' Whiscash began.

 

''It is dumb. I hate not knowing who I am or not being able to remember anyone I knew before.'' Ginji agreed with Pichu. He kicked a tiny pebble out of annoyance at his situation.

 

''Do you know how you got that scar?'' Squirtle asked, pointing to Ginji's forehead.

 

''So it's definitely noticeable. Oh, man.'' Ginji sighed. ''And no. Not a clue.''

 

''You don't remember anything about yourself? That's a shame. Sorry Ginji.'' Chikorita shook her head in pity.

 

''And you really don't know anything about your name except it's a human one? Or your friends and family, huh?'' Eevee asked.

 

"Nope. Nothing.''

 

'' _Wonder what they must have been like to give a Torchic a human name.''_  Eevee pondered to herself.

 

''I didn't know Ginji had amnesia. Wow.'' Caterpie stated in amazement. ''Wait, amnesia mean you forget things, right?''

 

''That's right, little guy. Something like that.'' Pikachu answered with a small chuckle. ''It's a tad more complicated, but I think you'll understand better for yourself.''

 

''My, that's a bit much a take in in just a minute. I can say I've met a few older Pokémon with amnesia who were able to recover, but never a Pokemon your age, Ginji.'' Whiscash fretted. ''Nor have I seen amnesia quite like this. You're certain you can't remember anything at all?''

 

GInji thought hard for a moment. Maybe if he kept asking himself more questions about it, he would start to remember some things, and the answer as to why he became a Pokémon would come easier to him. He tried doing just that.

 

After a few silent moments, Pikachu finally asked; ''Anything, Ginji?''

 

No. In fact, it seemed the more he thought about it, the more his brain began to hurt, and the less he knew about himself.

 

''No. Still nothing.''

 

''What a pity. I'm just glad you met Pikachu when you woke up. If there's anyone around here who is willing to help others in any way they can, it's Pikachu.''

 

Pikachu blushed at the compliment given to him. ''Aw, Whiscash.''

 

''Now I certainly hope you'll take good care of this boy until he recovers his memory.'' Whiscash let Pikachu know. ''And help him out in any way you can.''

 

''Of course I will. You can count on me.'' Pikachu cheered, giving a thumbs up.

 

''Of course I can. You're one of the friendliest and most trustworthy Pokémon around here.'' Whiscash smiled.

 

Ginji snorted. ''Well, he's letting me crash at his place, I'll give him that. Just until I figure out who I am.''

 

''That's marvelous to hear.'' Whicash beamed.

 

''I really wish there was something we could do to help out as well.'' Charmander said with concern.

 

''Actually there is.'' Pikachu told him with enthusiasm.

 

''There is?'' Caterpie asked, eyes gleaming in the sun.

 

''Yep. I need you guys to ask around the square if anyone knows a Torchic by the name of Ginji whenever you have any spare time. Pokémon pass through here regularly, and there's a decent chance one of em' is bound to know Ginji.''

 

''Seems like a good idea to me.'' Eevee shrugged.

 

''I'm on it!'' Pichu squeaked.

 

''Me too!'' Caterpie did so as well.

 

''There's not a lot for me to do most days anyway.'' Pichu put in.

 

''Then it's settled! We'll all help Ginji get his memory back, and find out who he is.'' Charmander proclaimed.

 

''Heh heh. Thanks guys. I guess.''Ginji chuckled awkwardly. ''But I'm fine right now. Pikachu and I will do whatever it takes to find out who I am.''

 

''A little help never hurt.'' Squirtle said to him softly.

 

''Do you think we could change the subject now? I think Pikachu might want to finish his story.'' Ginji found it hard to believe he was now asking for the story he had begged not to be told some minutes ago to continue. But if it meant getting everyone's minds off of his amnesia then who was he to disrupt the tale? He really didn't like it when people (or in this case, Pokémon) he just met worried about him. Not out of concern for them; but because he hated being pitied or fussed over. Especially by strangers. As selfish and cold-hearted as that sounded.

 

''Oh, yeah! You didn't really finish it, Pikachu. Let's get back to it!'' Pichu encouraged. Well, he liked Ginji's suggestion that was for sure.

 

''Yes! I can't wait until he gets to the part when he rescues me!'' Caterpie squeaked in anticipation.

 

''Ok, Ok. I'll finish it.'' Pikachu hurriedly told them. He held his hands out as if to gesture them to settle down. ''Geez, you guys must really like my story telling skills. Either that or it's just the story.''

 

''I'm gonna go with the second reason.'' Ginji muttered, which the mouse must not have heard.

 

''Everyone else want to hear the end of it?'' Pikachu asked around.

 

''You bet!'' Charmander confirmed with the enthusiasm to show he meant it.

 

''Of course.'' Chikorita nodded.

 

''I sure wouldn't miss hearing the ending for the world.'' Eevee said.

 

''Neither would I.'' Squirtle agreed with Eevee's statement rather than having one of his own to confirm he wanted to hear it as well.

 

''Then it's unanimous.'' Pikachu cheered. He looked over his shoulder to where Whiscash floated in the pond. ''Unless of course, Whiscash doesn't want me fill in for him as story-teller for the time being.''

 

''It's alright. I don't mind.'' Whiscash let him know he understood his joke with a warm smile.

 

''Great. Where was I again?''

 

''You and Ginji had just beaten the group of Sunkern.'' Charmander reminded him.

 

''That's right. Thanks, Charmander. So right after we had beaten them and were messing around with one another, we heard a…''

* * *

 

''So in the end, it was Ginji who helped me get the right amount of motivation to finally form a rescue team. And who gave me a member to form it with.'' Pikachu concluded his story.

 

Ginji perked his head up a bit at Pikachu's comment. Yes, Pikachu had more or less told him that he was part of the reason he finally formed his rescue team at the base after they had rescued Caterpie, but he had said it using different words. He had said that the two of them made a good team, and that rescuing Caterpie gave him just the amount of motivation he needed to form his rescue team. Ginji had assumed he meant the little mission they had together. He didn't think that he himself was the main reason Pikachu went through with his apparent long wanted decision. Honestly, he was a tad bit… flattered. Just a little. Or at least that's what he kept telling himself. Not that he would mention it to Pikachu of course.

 

''Wow! That was the best story ever!'' Caterpie squealed out of pure bias of Pikachu and Ginji being his new heroes. The others (while not as overly thrilled by the story as Caterpie with the exception of Pichu) definitely seemed to think it was a hilarious and interesting one. Judging by the amazed looks on their faces. They were even casting quick glances at Ginji to show their newfound appreciation for him.

 

''I bet you guys are gonna be the best rescue team there ever was!'' Pichu exclaimed.

 

''Not better than us, though. Besides, they've still got a long way to go.'' Squirtle boasted.

 

''So do you guys, Squirtle.'' Pichu remarked.

 

''Well, both us and Team Heroes are gonna have to work really hard at it if we want to be really strong. I still don't think anyone can match up to Team A.C.T.'' Charmander gave his opinion.

 

''Oh! I guess you're right there, Charmander.'' Pichu agreed suddenly. Everyone exchanged glances with one another with wide eyes, nodding indignantly. Ginji heard a couple 'Oh, yeahs' a 'great point', and a 'Most definitely'. These Pokémon sounded like they knew a lot about this 'Team A.C.T'. And the reactions told Ginji that whoever these guys were, they must be one amazing rescue team.

 

Eevee slipped away from the discussion to walk over to Ginji. He eyed her as she sat herself down next to him.

 

''Amnesia, huh?'' Eevee asked all of a sudden.

 

''I thought we agreed to talk about something else.'' Ginji reminded her dryly.

 

''Sorry. I was curious. Just trying to start a conversation with you.''

 

''Well, when you're trying to start a conversation with someone, maybe asking them about a personal thing they specifically asked to change the subject from before isn't the best way to get to start it. Or get to know them.''

 

''Thanks for the advice. Guess I'll remember that next time.'' The small mammal Pokemon curled her tail around her paws.

 

''I think you're really gonna like it around here.'' Eevee said helpfully, trying a different approach to get acquainted with this strange Torchic.

 

Pikachu and the other must have just finished their rescue team debating, because Squirtle could be heard calling out ''Hey, who wants to go for a final swim before the team and I head home?''

 

''I do!'' Caterpie shouted with glee.

 

''Wait, you know how to swim, Caterpie?'' Squirtle asked him surprised.

 

Caterpie got an embarrassed look on his face. He slowly lowered his head and shook it nervously.

 

Squirtle smiled sympathetically. ''Now worries. You can ride on my shell.''

 

Caterpie's smile reappeared. He then thought of something else. ''But-'' he began.

 

''Don't worry, I won't go underwater this time. And I'll make sure you don't slip off.''

 

''What if I do by accident?''

 

''Then I'll be right there to catch you.''

 

''Ok.'' Caterpie smiled, letting Squirtle know he trusted him enough to comply with that.

 

Squirtle gently hopped in the water as to not splash anyone for the second time. He floated on his belly next to shore so that Caterpie could climb on the back of his shell. Caterpie gingerly slivered off the grass and onto the blue turtle's shell. The stickiness of his underbelly made it easy for him to cling onto Squirtle's hard shell.

 

''Hold on tight.'' Squirtle told him before dashing farther into the pond.

 

Caterpie giggled with delight. For a little Pokémon who couldn't swim, he sure was enjoying riding on the fast turtle's while being surrounded by water that only got deeper the closer you swam to the center of the pond.

 

''This is fun!'' He cried out in joy as Squirtle zipped from one side of the pond to another on his front side. He managed to do a good job of keeping the back of his shell just out of the water for Catepie.

 

''Ha ha! You bet it is!'' Squirtle turned his attention to his two teammates on the grassy shore. ''Hey, Chikorita? You coming in too?''

 

''Thanks for the offer Squirtle but I think I've had enough water for today. And so has Charmander. Even more so than me. Maybe next time.'' Chikorita answered.

 

Squirtle laughed nervously remembering that he had given his friends their fair share of water for the day with that big splash he made. And it wasn't like Charmander would ever be able to go in the water anyway.

 

''Right. Fair enough.''

 

''Hey, Squirtle! I'll join you.'' Eevee called to him.

 

''Alright!'' Squirtle exclaimed.

 

Eevee ran over to the pond and jumped in, making a small splash as her body hit the water. She went under for a second before popping her head back out. The only one she did splash was Whiscash, who naturally didn't mind it at all, having being in water twenty-four seven. His only response was a small and friendly grunt as a small amount of water washed over the right side of his face.

 

Eevee turned so that she was floating on her back. She kicked at the water with her hind paws so that she was doing somewhat of a reverse doggy paddle. Rather appropriate for her canine like species of Pokémon.

 

''Pikachu, Pichu, Ginji? You guys coming in too? The water's gre-oh.'' Squirtle had a dumb realization after remembering something very important about the three of them. Two of whom were electric types and the other of whom was a fire type. Of course any Pokémon with a single brain cell would know that it probably wasn't the brightest idea to swim with an electric type. Especially when your typing was water. Plus, anyone who knew Pikachu well enough to be aware of his high energy when performing his attacks knew that the he in particular was the last electric type you would want to be swimming with. And judging from the rodent's story, Squirtle knew that Ginji could probably vouch for that.

 

Pikachu and Ginji looked at one another before slowly looking back at the pond and Squirtle. Pichu nodded sadly, seeming to understand as well.

 

''Yeah, we better not. Sorry Squirtle.'' Pikachu said with half a smile.

 

''To tell you the truth Squirtle, despite being a fire type I've had my good dose of water today as well thanks to this guy.'' Ginji gestured to Pikachu upon telling Squirtle that. Pikachu just smiled innocently.

 

''I've also had a good dose of electricity from this guy too, and I don't plan on combining the two to add 'barbequed and liquidized chicken' to my list of 'not so fantastic misadventures caused by Pikachu'.'' Ginji added.

 

Squirtle laughed as he thought of Pikachu's story of Ginji getting fried by his thundershock, leading to Ginji's suggestion of 'Team Barbeque' for their name.

 

''It might make for another awesome story starring Ginji though.'' Pikachu pointed out cheekily.

 

''Oh ha ha. You're comedy gold.'' Ginji scoffed.

 

''Wait, You've been in water today?'' Eevee asked curiously.

 

''Against my will, yeah.'' Ginji answered.

 

''So the water shouldn't be a problem for you, Ginji.'' Squirtle said.

 

''Actually, I think falling into it unexpectedly made it more of a problem than it's ever been for me.''

 

''That's a story for another day, though.'' Pikachu quickly said.

 

Pikachu briefly looked up at the sky. ''It's getting dark anyway. Pichu, I think it's time you head home to Raichu.'' He told his brother, noticing the sun almost completely disappearing behind the trees.

 

''Aww, c'mon Pikachu. Twenty more minutes.'' Pichu whined.

 

''Ten.''

 

''Fifteen.''

 

''Five.''

 

''Twelve.''

 

''Deal.'' Pikachu finally agreed to. He gave his kid brother a pat on the head. ''I think that goes for you too, Caterpie.'' He called out to the small caterpillar Pokémon still having a blast riding on the back of Squirtle's shell.

 

''Oh, right.'' Caterpie noticed the sky beginning to darken. He sounded a bit disappointed.

 

'' _Swimming with Squirtle must be real fun.''_  Ginji thought, half sarcastically.

 

''Squirtle, can you swim to the shore and let me off? I should probably go home soon.''

 

''You sure? You sounded like you were having a lot of fun.''

 

''I was. I just want to be home before dark. Or else mama will start to worry about me.''

 

''Sure thing, then.'' Squirtle shrugged his shoulders with a smile before swimming up to the grassy shore. He grabbed the edge of it, and pulled the upper part of his body up out of the water so that Caterpie could sliver up his shell and safely back onto the grass.

 

''Thanks Squirtle.''

 

''I believe it's quite time all of you young folk left the pond for the night. I need to get back to sleep. Telling stories to Pokémon every day can get to be a busy job, and I want to be well rested for tomorrow.'' Whiscash yawned.

 

''Right, Whiscash. Right away.'' Eevee responded. She swam to shore and pulled herself out of the water. Followed by shaking herself off. Drops of water flung off of her fur and onto Pikachu and Ginji.

 

''Watch it, Eevee.'' Pikachu laughed. ''I've already had Ginji do that to me today.''

 

''Yeah, but who's the fire type here again?'' Ginji reminded him, head feathers flicking up in surprise at the cold water droplets hitting them.

 

Pikachu could only continue to laugh as a response to Ginji's statement.

 

''Well, I think Ginji and I are gonna head back to the base. Have a good sleep and get ready for tomorrow.'' Pikachu told Eevee once he had finished laughing.

 

''Good idea. I can't imagine rescuing is as easy as it sounds. Wouldn't hurt to try it sometime though.'' There was a sense of curiosity in Eevee's voice. Like she was unsure of the idea of being on a rescue team, but wanted to try it for the thrill.

 

''It's not. Then again we've only been on two.'' Ginji explained to her.

 

''I guess I won't take your word for it right way, then.''

 

''Best if you don't. Especially coming from the mouth of this guy.'' Pikachu advised her.

 

Ginji just shot him a sideways glare. He was getting used to harmless gibes from Pikachu now.

 

''You really should try it sometime.'' Pikachu encouraged her.

 

''Maybe.'' She shrugged. '' We should probably let Whiscash get some peace. I'll get everyone else out of here in a couple minutes or so.'' She motioned to the three members of team Go-getters and the two very young Pokemon behind her. ''And I'll definitely make sure Caterpie and Pichu go home before dark.''

 

''Thanks Eevee. You're the best.''

 

Eevee smiled sheepishly. ''So I guess I'll see you guys around.''

 

''You bet!'' Pikachu confirmed.

 

Pikachu headed for the entrance to Whiscash pond on all fours. Ginji followed behind him, grateful he was going at an actual legit slow pace this time. Or at least what qualified as slow in Ginji's book.

 

''We'll see you guys around!'' Pikachu called back to everyone to get their attention. ''Thanks for the support in helping Ginji remember who he is.''

 

''Don't mention it, Pikachu.'' Charmander said, putting his fists on his hips.

 

''Thank you for the story.'' Chikorita said.

 

''Caterpie, Pichu. Make sure you guys are home before dark.'' Pikachu reminded them.

 

''Don't worry Pikachu. Caterpie and I will walk home together.'' Pichu reassured him. ''Turns out we don't live far from each other. Plus, I know my way home like the back of my paw.''

 

''Me too!'' Caterpie claimed.

 

''You say so.'' Pikachu smiled at them.

 

Whiscash waved at him and Ginji with his whisker. ''Please be safe out there, young Torchic. And know you're welcome back here anytime.''

 

''Oh. Thanks.'' Ginji stammered. He didn't bother telling Whiscash that he would be just fine out there and didn't need anyone to tell him to be safe. He was getting tired and didn't feel like starting an episode.

 

''Thanks for stopping by, Pikachu.'' Squirtle called to him.

 

''No problem. Keep working on your water gun, Squirtle. You'll get there soon, I know it.'' He gave the turtle a thumbs up before turning to leave with Ginji.

 

''You ready to head back to the base?'' He asked the chick Pokémon before rushing off.

 

''Yeah. And it's not like it's going to be abducted by UFOS or anything though that would be cool so there's no need to stampede there.''

 

''UFOS?''

 

''Never mind.''

* * *

 

''So Ginji? You think you'll like it here?'' Pikachu asked him as the two were walking through the square back to the bridge after Pikachu had agreed there was no rush and walking back home rather than racing would be just fine.

 

''Eh. So far this place has passed the 'I can live with it I guess' test. But give it a few days. If a cure for ugliness as well as killjoy disorder begins to get sold at the Kecleon shop during those few days-'' he made an eye gesture in Snubbull's direction when the two passed her, Bellsprout, and Lotad in the square. ''Then I'll consider really loving it here.''

 

''Ginji.'' Pikachu lightly shoved him before making sure Snubbull didn't unfortunately hear that by some unlucky chance. Thankfully it didn't look like she did.

 

''What?'' Ginji asked crudely.

 

''You know what. Have you always been this cynical about everything or did it just come naturally?'' Pikachu asked him lightly. He was smiling so Ginji got the feeling Pikachu knew he was just being himself. He was just now curious as to how he got to be himself (as close as one with amnesia would get to being themself anyway).

 

''Don't remember. Could be both.''

 

''Figured.''

 

The two kept walking towards the bridge when Pikachu spoke up again.

 

''There's another question I have for you, Ginji.''

 

''What?''

 

''That whole list you mentioned called 'not so fantastic misadventures caused by Pikachu'? Are you actually keeping a list like that?''

 

''I might be. Don't worry though. I don't have a piece of paper or a pencil to right it with. Unless of course I scratch it into the dirt next to my nest.''

 

''Yeah, but it would get ruined there.'' Pikachu explained to him. There was a teasing tone in his voice.

 

''You're right. Don't worry Pikachu. You won't have to worry about me harassing you over the number of times you've caused my misery after all.''

 

''Glad to hear that.''

 

''Because even if I can keep a list in my head, I would lose count anyhow.''

 

''That says a lot about me then.'' Pikachu chuckled. ''You know something, Ginj? You're funny. In a very weird way. You asked me if I found you weird today. I do. You are pretty weird. But I think that's what I like about you.''

* * *

**Finally chapter three. After a whole year. Yeah, I really need to keep updates frequent. I've been pretty busy this past year. I had to rewrite this four times due to some glitches. It sucked. I promised myself I would post at least two chapters a month. Hopefully I'll keep that promise.**

**Yes, there is a Squirtle, Charmander, and Chikorita in this story and their team name is Go-getters. I really liked that special and I wanted to have a team Go-getters with those three Pokémon on it in this story**


	4. Trouble is Real at Mt. Steel

* * *

 

Ginji felt the same soothing feeling he had felt the night before when he fluttered open his eyes. That same luminous misty light that had greeted him in his dream was greeting him once again. He groaned.

 

"Great. I'm having that weird dream again, aren't I?"

 

Something about this light irritated Ginji. It probably had something to do with the fact that he felt as if the light was teasing him. It was warm and calming, but it was as if it was welcoming him back in the most pleasant way possible only to have a secret nasty ulterior motive underneath all that pleasantness. At least that was how he saw it given his first dream.

 

Then he felt it. That strange presence again. At this point it was much more than the simple creepy feeling of someone watching you from afar. There was actually someone there, Ginji knew it. Did other Pokémon have dreams like this? And if they did, could they feel another's presence without any of the primary senses as well?

 

Ginji was sure the presence he felt was another Pokémon. It definitely wasn't a human presence _. "Wait, how do I even know that? Why can I even think like I'm awake? What kind of dream is this?"_

 

Well, as long as he didn't disappear from the dream again, he supposed these dreams were kind of...neat. In a way. Sure the one from the night before freaked him out a bit, but that was most likely due to it being the first time he had it. Plus, seeing your own body fade wasn't something most people took normally.

 

There was something else Ginji was beginning to make out. Sort of like an echo. Maybe it was whoever was there? He was sure it was a Pokémon, but was this Pokémon the same presence as the one he felt in his first dream? If this Pokémon was speaking, were they speaking to him? He couldn't make out what the voice was saying, but he figured now would be a good time to try and talk to this voice.

 

"Hello? I can hear you a little bit. Whoever you are, are you talking to me?"

 

He continued to hear the echo, but still couldn't make out any words.

 

"I can't hear you. Could you maybe be a bit clearer? Maybe speak a little louder. Coming closer might help a lot. Showing yourself might be even better." Ginji told the voice, throwing the last two suggestions at the end of his sentence.

 

He did get somewhat of a response. Although Ginji wasn't entirely sure the green and yellow ground rumbling beneath him was the kind of response he had hoped for. Frankly, he was entirely sure it wasn't.

 

"Whhaaaaaaaaaa! It's an earthquake!" Ginji cried out in fear.

 

The whole entire void was shaking. Of course Ginji being able to feel things the same way he could if he was awake, was being shaken around helplessly. He was knocked right off his feet, and couldn't even get back up without face planting into the void again.

 

"Ok, I'd take disappearing into thin air over this any day! Stupid dream! It feels way too real!" Ginji screeched while his voice rattled.

 

With just his luck, the ground started rumbling even more, and by this point Ginji couldn't even sit up without being tossed back down on his back or side. He couldn't even see properly now. Everything was just a dizzying blur of yellow, green, and luminous white.

 

"It's gotten even worse! C'mon Ginji, wake up! Why do these dreams feel so real? Better question- why do they hate me so much?!"

 

Ginji squeezed his eyes shut tight as he was knocked around by the earthquake. He needed to wake up. He was praying to wake up.

 

"Just, wake up!"

* * *

 

"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh! Somebody help me! Pikachu! Quick, we got to get out of here now!" Ginji scrambled around in circles, sending pieces of his nest shooting all over the place. Again. "Ne ver mind getting out of here, I just need to get out of this freaky Pokémon world right now! I want to be a human again!" The last thing Ginji was doing right now in his panicked state was watching where he was running. Naturally, he stampeded right over to Pikachu's nest where the electric mouse Pokémon miraculously still lay in slumber. Not for much longer.

 

"Earthquake! Get me out of heeereeeeee!" Ginji trampled right over Pikachu, causing the mouse to wake right up in a flash.

 

"Whoa! What's happening?!" Pikachu asked in a quick breath after he sat up.

 

"Earthquaaaaaaakeeeeee!" Pikachu was knocked onto his belly back into his nest by a certain orange and red ball of fluff. Ginji proceeded to peck at Pikachu's neck and the back of his head while he kicked up bits and pieces of the nest with his foot.

 

"Ow! Ginji, what -ow- has gotten-ow- into- ow-you? Ow." Pikachu demanded in between 'ows' and pecks.

 

"We are gonna dieeeeeee! There was an earthquake and-!" Ginji began before the two of them heard yet another rumble beneath them. The ground of the base shook as the two of them watched. Pikachu out of curiosity and Ginji in horror.

 

"Oh my God! It wasn't a dream after all!" Ginji exclaimed in fright. "There's an actual earthquake!"

 

"Ginji, calm down!" Pikachu told him.

 

The rumbling stopped for a few seconds. Ginji and Pikachu just looked at the middle of the floor.

 

"Did it stop?" Ginji asked meekly.

 

Before Pikachu could reply, a Pokémon with three head shaped like cylinders popped out of the ground.

 

"Hello? Is this the base of rescue team Heroes?" The Pokémon asked while looking around. "Our name is Dugtrio. We're looking for a Pikachu and a Torchic named Gin-" the Dugtrio had turned to where Ginji and Pikachu were, and paused once they had caught sight of Ginji on top of Pikachu's back, while the electric rodent lay on his belly.

 

"Oh, my. Perhaps we have arrived at a bad time." Dugtrio suggested more out of embarrassment than shock.

 

Pikachu quickly rolled onto his back and stood up, letting Ginji slip off his back and jump back up next to him.

 

"Nope." The two of them answered together. Pikachu's face flushed red while Ginji looked more disgusted than anything.

 

"Oh, we're sorry for assuming such things. So you guys are just-"

 

"Why don't you step outside and we'll explain everything." Pikachu suggested.

 

"Pikachu, they kind of just busted into our base uninvited." Ginji whispered.

 

"Yeah, but they're probably a client, Ginji." Pikachu reminded him.

 

Ginji sighed. "You'd let someone off scott free if they burned the base down. As long as they were a client."

* * *

 

"And so that's why you ended up seeing Ginji on my back and pieces of nest everywhere." Pikachu finished after a short but insightful explanation.

 

"It's also why you should never ever just barge into someone's place unexpectedly. Even if you're the president. You never know what the people -er Pokémon that live there could be doing." Ginji put in.

 

"Ah, yes. Terribly sorry about that. It's a habit we have. We have a dire situation at the moment. But we do want to tell you something, young Torchic. There are certain things that are suitable for your age, and certain things that are not. What one might assume was going on upon entering your base fell into the not category." Dugtrio told Ginji with a little chuckle at the end.

 

"Thanks for the tip. Trust me, dude. You don't have to worry about that. Especially when the only other Pokémon in this place is this guy." Ginji couldn't resist taking a little jab at Pikachu considering the jabs the mouse took at him.

 

"Thanks, Ginj. Love you too. But I think it's time to change the subject now. I want to know a couple things. First, what was that all about this morning Ginji?" Pikachu asked the chick.

 

"Oh, nothing much. Just the little fact that there was an earthquake!" Ginji snarked.

 

"Well, you're gonna have to get used to them, pal. They've been happening all the time lately. All part of the natural disasters occurring lately." Pikachu told him.

 

"How can you say 'all part of the natural disasters' in such a calm tone?" Ginji cried. He mocked Pikachu on the natural disasters part with a horrendous impression of his voice.

 

Pikachu didn't seem to mind Ginji's mocking. In fact, Ginji was sure he was trying to hold back laughter. "They happen all the time. We're all just used to them now. Besides, we know we have nothing to worry about knowing first class rescue teams are on the case."

 

"Well I'm not used to these things happening." Ginji said.

 

"Yeah. I figured." Pikachu teased.

 

"Don't you worry, Ginji. We take it you're not from around here. Neither are we. Our son and us are just here visiting for a couple weeks. The first time we experienced an earthquake here, it was very frightening. We're just glad the Pokémon around here are very informative."

 

"For your information, I wasn't scared. I was just... freaked out. Yeah. That's it. There's a difference." Ginji huffed.

 

"Not really." Pikachu laughed.

 

Ginji shot him a glare. "I did not ask for your opinion, Pikachu."

 

"Yeah, Ginji's still learning a lot." Pikachu said, ignoring Ginji. "You just need to relax every once and a while, Ginj. It's like I said yesterday. Life's too short to worry about everything."

 

"Easy for you to say, Mr. Fortune Cookie." Ginji smirked.

 

"C'mon. I just don't want 'Ginji wakeup call' to become a routine."

 

"Ginji wakeup call? Seriously?"

 

"Got to call those times when you wake me up with one of your episodes and then I find pieces of straw and hay everywhere something, don't I?"

 

"You're hilarious." Ginji muttered.

 

"I sure am. So anyway, let's get to the second thing I want to know. What your dire situation is." Pikachu turned to Dugtrio.

 

"Thank goodness. We were afraid you were going to bicker all day. Anyhow, our son Diglett and we are from the sand continent. We're on vacation here and-"

 

"How about you skip to the part important part. The part we don't know about. The part we care about." Ginji yawned.

 

That warranted a light punch in the side from Pikachu.

 

"Never mind Ginji. He's usually like this. Go on."

 

"Right. As we were saying, last night, during the earthquake, our son Diglett was attacked by a Skarmory."

 

"Gosh, that's awful. Is he ok?" Pikachu asked.

 

"We wouldn't know. He was whisked away to the peak of a tall mountain."

 

"Do you think you could be a bit more specific? There's a lot of tall mountains on this continent." Pikachu pointed out.

 

"Well, the mountain looked like it was made from Steel."

 

"Mt. Steel?" Pikachu asked.

 

"We guess so." Dugtrio shrugged. Ginji noticed all three heads always spoke in unison, always had the same expressions, and the same reaction s to everything. Their voices were all the same as well. These heads were even more alike than the Keckleon brothers. Now that was impressive. Did they all think alike as well? We're they separate beings or one being together? Ginji never thought he would have so many questions about Pokémon before.

 

"I take it you need our help." Pikachu concluded.

 

"Correct. You are Rescue Team Heroes, aren't you?"

 

"That's right." Pikachu stated proudly. "How'd you find out about us?"

 

"There are these two cute little boys in the square. Caterpie and Pichu. They told us about you when we desperately searched for help."

 

"Of course." Pikachu smiled. "Pichu's my little brother, and Caterpie is a friend of ours. Rescuing him was actually our first rescue mission. Technically, it wasn't an official rescue mission since we hadn't registered our team yet, but... you know what I mean."

 

"We see." Dugtrio nodded. Ginji was sure the only thing on their mind at the moment was getting their son back safe and sound. Though for a parent whose child was just abducted, they seemed awfully calm. Butterfree was practically bawling when Caterpie had fell into that crater in Tiny Woods.

 

"Well what do you know?" Pikachu nudged Ginji playfully. "We're already getting recognized after just a few days. I'd say we're off to a great start."

 

"Yeah. So far all our clients have heard about us from two little kids. Great start." Ginji sarcastically agreed.

 

"Oh, quit being such a stick in the mud." Pikachu groaned. "At least we're getting somewhere."

 

Ginji couldn't remember the last time he heard anyone say that. He wasn't aware that cliché sayings were still popular among Pokémon.

 

Pikachu turned back to Dugtrio.

 

"Don't you worry. We'll have Diglett down from Mt. Steel in no time." Pikachu exclaimed.

 

"Thank you. Best be on your way then." With that, Dugtrio burrowed back underground and out of sight.

 

Ginji stuck his head down the hole Dugtrio left behind. "Hey, you know you left two big holes on our property. Might be nice to help fix them later on." He called. No answer. "Do you leave big holes everywhere you go?"

 

"Ginji, why don't we worry about this later? We've got a job to do right now." Pikachu reminded him. "We better start making our way to Mt. Steel. Follow me."

 

Pikachu got into his running stance. Seeing Pikachu's tail in a straight position pointing towards him told Ginji what would be a smart thing to do. Just to be on the safe side.

 

Pikachu would have taken off had he not been stopped by a certain Torchic who had stepped on his tail and caused him to face plant on the ground.

 

"Right. Reasonable pace." Pikachu groaned in a muffled voice. "But you don't need to do this every time, you know." Pikachu told him, lifting his head from the dirt.

 

"No. You're right. I don't need to. I just want to." Ginji said innocently.

 

"And you say I'm the one who's against you." Pikachu moaned, shaking himself off after getting back on all fours.

 

Surprisingly he did take off at a slow enough pace that Ginji could keep up this time. Keeping that slow pace up the whole way there, now that was an entirely different matter.

* * *

 

"So this is Mt. Steel? Dugtrio wasn't exaggurating. This place really does look like it's made of steel." Ginji exclaimed, gazing at the tall mountain looming above them with eyes wide open.

 

"Of course they weren't. Diglett must be at the top by now. I hope Skarmory hasn't hurt him." Pikachu said.

 

"Less talk, more rescue if we want to get this kid down in one piece, huh?" Ginji suggested.

 

"Right. We should probably be heading up there now. Let's go." Pikachu took a couple steps forward before a cylinder mole Pokémon opened up a hole right from under his foot. "Whoa!" Pikachu yelped as he was knocked on his rear.

 

Ginji had a similar reaction, jumping off the ground and flailing his little wings in the air. "Yikes!"

 

He landed once he had stopped fluttering his wings. "Will you stop doing that?!" Ginji panted.

 

"Terribly sorry. We just wanted to wish you good luck. The peak shouldn't be too high up."

 

"Not too high up? This thing's a steel monster!" Ginji cried.

 

"It may appear big from where you're looking at it, but we've had the time to do a bit of exploring during our visit here. We've been on this mountain. It's nowhere near treacherous." Dugtrio reassured them.

 

"Right. Thanks Dugtrio." Pikachu said, getting up.

 

"Our pleasure. We'll be on our way then." The three heads popped right back under the earth. "We're counting on you." Dugtrio shouted from down the tunnel they made.

 

"Ok then. Let's go Ginji." Pikachu shrugged. He started making his way up from the cave like entrance.

 

"Geez, do you think they always pop out of the ground out of nowhere and say random things about themselves like that?" Ginji asked walking beside Pikachu.

 

"Beats me. Wouldn't surprise me if they did though." Pikachu answered.

* * *

 

The mountain wasn't pure steel contrary to its appearance. It was just ninety percent steel. The other percentage was five percent rock while the remaining percent was ground. There was a path leading up the mountain for Pokémon to walk up. There were tunnel caves every few feet they climbed for some shade when it got too hot. Not that it was especially hot that day, though they still provided shelter from the sun.

 

The Pokémon the duo had encountered so far had consisted of Zigzagoon, Spearow, and Baltoy. The Spearow were no problem thanks to Pikachu's thundershock attack. Ginji's growl contributed to taking out the Spearow that were quick to dodge the streaks of electricity. Ginji was still pretty convinced Pikachu had learned Thunderwave during the Voltorb incident in the cave of the same name. Some Pokémon being paralyzed by Pikachu's streaks happened a bit too often to just dismiss as Pikachu's static ability.

 

"Awesome! I swear that was Thunderwave, Pikachu." Ginji congratulated him as a couple of Spearow fell to the ground with fried feathers and an electric field surrounding their bodies.

 

"I don't know. You really think so?" Pikachu asked sheepishly.

 

Ginji rolled his eyes. _"Oh, brother. Here we go again."_

 

"I know so. That was clearly Thunderwave. I don't know what it is with you and not praising yourself. If I learned a new attack and was perfecting it, I would be kissing my own butt." Ginji remarked.

 

"Oh, that I believe." Pikachu smirked.

 

Ginji noticed one if the Spearow start to move its wing behind Pikachu. "Um, Pikachu. Now would be a good time to finish off that Spearow."

 

Pikachu looked behind him. Seeing the two Spearow start to break free of their paralysis caused Pikachu to have a naturally fast reaction, shooting himself at the two of them with Tackle. The Spearow were sent hurtling in opposite directions.

 

"Good eye." Pikachu praised Ginji.

 

"Thanks. I'll take this one and you take the other one." Ginji called to him.

 

Ginji jumped in front of his Spearow, who was struggling to get up.

 

"Maybe I can try a fire attack." Ginji thought to himself. He puffed in his chest and diaphragm, stood on the tip of his toes, and puffed out his cheeks. After a few second of what he assumed was storing all the energy he had, he opened his mouth in the hopes that a ball of fire would come out. Nothing but a puff of smoke and a small cough to follow it. The Spearow didn't even do anything to try and fight back. It just braced itself by shielding its wing in front of its face. Once it heard Ginji's coughing it peeked open its eye a bit, and knew it was dealing with one beginner opponent. The Spearow scoffed and used the little energy it had left to fly into Ginji, knocking the fluffier bird off his feet. The Spearow landed on top of him and used a peck attack right at his face.

 

"Oh, C'mon. Not the Tiny Woods thing all over again. I already have a cool X scar on my forehead. I don't need any extra small ones to impress the girls."

 

"Ginji, just use your growl then give it a quick scratch and let's go." Pikachu instructed him.

 

Ginji let out a snarl, and blue zigzagged patterns started running down the Spearow's body. Once the patterns had stopped, Ginji swiped his leg under the bird's belly to deliver a scratch attack to its pelvis. That got the Spearow off him in no time. It flew up with a screech after Ginji had given the attack.

 

"This way." Pikachu called to him. The mouse darted down a narrow tunnel path in front of them. Ginji got up and followed him.

 

The two of them stopped to catch a breather in the middle of the path.

 

"Great job, Ginj." Pikachu put a paw on his shoulder.

 

"What's with that nickname anyway?" Ginji asked him.

 

"I just wanted to give you a special little nickname I guess." Pikachu answered. "You like it?"

 

"It's alright I guess. It's just, why can't it be something cooler?"

 

"Cooler? What kind of name did you have in mind?"

 

"I don't know. Phoenix Fire, Flames of Fury, Pyronater-"

 

"Pyronater. Really?" Pikachu asked dumbfounded.

 

"Ok, that one was a bit lame. As long as it's not Gingersnap I'll take it."

 

"Fiery Fluff ball?" Pikachu suggested helpfully.

 

"You know what, let's just stick to Ginj."

* * *

 

The Baltoy were a bit more of a challenge. Their harden move did not help being able to take them down. Every time Pikachu hit one with a tackle, and Ginji with a scratch, it seemed to be taking less and less damage. One Baltoy in particular brushed Ginji and Pikachu's attacks off with a rapid spin. It spun itself around, creating a gust of wind beneath it, which only increased the more it spun. Ginji and Pikachu were getting ready to sprint away, but before they could get as far as the next tunnel, the small tornado was hurled towards them, grabbing Pikachu by the tail and sending him ramming into the mountain side.

 

"Pikachu!" Ginji stopped running to check on his friend, only to have the gust of wind pick him up next and send him slamming into the same spot and falling on Pikachu.

 

"I'll be feeling that the rest of the day." Ginji moaned in pain.

 

The Baltoy made its way towards the two friends who sled on the ground. Ginji rolled off Pikachu and stood back up despite the throbbing pain in his side. The last thing he wanted to do was give up so easily.

 

The Baltoy moved closer towards them and Ginji tried to look as tough as possible. He had no idea what to do at this point. He didn't know any fire moves, and he couldn't keep relying on growl and scratch forever. Ginji backed up farther and farther until he couldn't anymore as he had backed up against the mountain side.

 

"Great." Ginji thought. Then it hit him. "The mountain side."

 

"Psst. Pikachu." He whispered to his teammate.

 

"What is it?" Pikachu whispered back. He was still lying on the floor, bracing himself for what the Baltoy would do next.

 

"I have an idea. You with me?"

 

"You bet." Pikachu regained that glimmer of hope in his eyes that Ginji had become so used to seeing.

 

"Great. Use tail whip. Now." Ginji directed him.

 

"Alright then. I suppose you know what you're doing." Pikachu raised his tail in the air and waved it around in a small circle.

 

While the pattern of blue zigzags were running down the Baltoy's body, Ginji took the opportunity to explain the final part of his plan to Pikachu.

 

"When I say now, we jump out of the way. That Baltoy will uses another move on us once that tail whip effect is finished."

 

"Ok Ginj." Pikachu nodded. "I trust you on this."

 

Just as Ginji had predicted, the Baltoy began preparing another attack once the blue pattern effect was complete.

 

"3..."

 

"2..."

 

"1..."

 

"Now!" Pikachu and Ginji jumped out of the way right as the attack was launched. The duo ran far behind the Baltoy and lay against the ground, holding on tightly to the nearest rock as the blast hit the mountain side, sending the Baltoy flying backwards. Ginji lost his gripping of the rock as it was hard to clutch on tightly to something with tiny wings and skinny stick like feet.

 

"Whoooaaahhh!" He cried out as he was blown away. Before he could be slammed into another part of the mountain or even worse be sent flying off the edge of it, he felt a small paw grab around his skinny ankle.

 

"Gotcha."

 

Ginji looked down to see Pikachu clutching onto his foot tightly. Once the rapid gust of wind died down, Pikachu lowered Ginji back to the ground.

 

"Thanks for that. I probably owe you." Ginji sighed with relief.

 

"Don't mention it. What are teammates for?" Pikachu asked him. "Plus, you saved me from that attack back there. I'd say we're even."

 

Ginji came to that realization and nodded.

 

The two of them looked in front of them to see the Baltoy already picking itself up off the ground. It floated in the air once again, ready for more.

 

"Man, this thing just doesn't give up, does it?" Ginji asked in frustration.

 

"Guess not. Any other ideas?" Pikachu asked him.

 

"Umm. Give me a minute. I'm working on another smart over the top one. Might take a while."

 

The Baltoy was already whipping up another rapid spin before either one of them could do anything else.

 

"Not sure we have a while, pal." Pikachu informed him.

 

Not more than two seconds after Pikachu had spoken the obvious was the rapid spin launched in their direction.

 

"Jump out of the way!" Ginji shouted as the string gust of wind was hurling right towards them. Pikachu and Ginji both leaped the opposite direction of one another just before the wind could hit either one. The gust of wind whirled right on ahead, leading it to vanish in the air.

 

"Quick! Behind it!" Ginji called to his teammate. He and Pikachu both raced to each other until they were standing side by side between the mountain wall and the Baltoy.

 

"That sure was clever. Jump. Behind it." Pikachu panted. He looked at Ginji who surprisingly didn't have anything to say in response. He wasn't even panting. There wasn't a small sign of a sweat from the small bird. His eyes were closed, his body tense, as if he was deeply invested in his thoughts. More than the average Pokémon Ginji's age usually was.

 

"Um. Ginji?" Pikachu poked at his friend to try and get him to open his eyes. Pikachu looked back at the Baltoy, who had turned back at them.

 

"Ginji?" Pikachu began to shake him, his voice sounding frantic. "I think now might be a good time to attack it."

 

No answer. Funny. Usually Ginji would never shut up or at the very least think before he said something. Why was the chick acting like this now? Especially when they were battling a Baltoy of all times.

 

"Ginji, whatever you're doing, snap out if it! The Baltoy is ready to attack again!" Pikachu screeched at him.

 

"Shut up! I'm thinking!" Ginji finally snapped at him.

 

Pikachu crouched on all fours and took a few steps backwards, shocked at Ginji's tone. "Ok. Sorry." He bent both of his ears down in a meek manor. He didn't try and get Ginji's attention again after that one. He let the chick stand there and do his thinking. He only hoped he could be very quick about it, as the mouse was looking back at the Baltoy and watching as it crept closer to Ginji and him. It looked like the Baltoy was preparing a surprise attack on the Chick. Looking back at Ginji, Pikachu noticed something odd about how his friend looked. Sure it was odd for Ginji to actually stop and think about something before acting on it, but the way the Torchic looked right now, Pikachu could tell this wasn't Ginji actually thinking normally at all. The little flecks of yellow sparks that were seeping through the fire chicken's feathers only added to that mindset.

 

Seeing The Baltoy mere inches from Ginji, ready to hit him with another attack while the chick just stood there in his stance caused Pikachu to react out of pure shock.

 

"I can't take this any longer." Pikachu jittered to himself. He shot a wave of electricity from his cheeks, striking the Baltoy with it. The Baltoy froze upon the electricity surging through its body. There was now an electric field around it, which had the Baltoy locked on the spot.

 

"You were right, Ginji. That was Thunderwave." Pikachu exclaimed in amazement

 

"Pikachu! What the heck did you do that for?!" Ginji asked him not nearly as amazed as Pikachu was. If he was in fact even amazed in the slightest.

 

"Sorry. I didn't know what else to do. You were just standing there with your eyes closed, not doing anything." Pikachu explained to him.

 

"I was getting ready to use a fire attack!" Ginji complained.

 

"Fire attack? Ginji, you don't know any fire type moves yet! What were you thinking there?" Pikachu cried.

 

"Please don't remind me. I thought now would be a good time to try using a move." Ginji retorted.

 

Pikachu sighed. "Look, Ginji. I know you really want to learn a move that matches with your type, but that right there really wasn't the best time to try learning. In a real battle you should always go with what you know. Learning is what we have training and weaker Pokémon for."

 

"Well, that's bullspit! If I have to be a Pokémon, I at least want to do something cool! So far I've been making my way through these 'dungeons' with nothing but lame attacks." Ginji huffed.

 

Pikachu just flicked an ear with a shocked expression on his face. He watched as Ginji mumbled to himself and puffed his chest out in a way that looked like he was preparing an attack.

 

"Ember!" The chick Pokémon called out. He opened his mouth to release it. Nothing but a smoke puff. Ginji just grumbled and tried the same thing again. "Ember!" Nothing.

 

"Why don't you try Peck?" Pikachu suggested.

 

Ginji shot him an irritated glance. "Ok, then. I guess I can settle with that." Ginji grunted. "Peck!"

 

Ginji rammed his beak into the paralyzed Baltoy. Nothing. Instead, Pikachu's electric field sent a jolt of electricity rushing through Ginji's body.

 

Pikachu tucked his face into his paws in disappointment, knowing that had been the least helpful he had been to anyone. "Sorry Ginji." Pikachu groaned, his voice being muffled due to his face being buried in his arms.

 

Once the zapping had stopped, Ginji fell to the ground, his feathers all blackened and fried. Pikachu slumped over to him.

 

"Maybe it's for the best you don't know any fire moves yet. After all, the trick is to get the other Pokémon crispy with a move, not yourself." Pikachu tried to lighten the situation, though he did have to admit that was probably the stupidest time he could have picked to make that joke.

 

"Thanks, Pikachu. Now are we going to finish this thing off or are you just going to stand there and enjoy watching me be tormented, while helping with the torment yourself." Ginji sulked.

 

"Right. Sorry. But only a little bit." Pikachu snickered. "You're going to need to get up though." Pikachu told him.

 

Ginji rose to his feet in the most pathetic way possible. As if he was intentionally making himself look like he was in more pain than he actually was (which he probably was doing).

 

"Why don't we use a small combo attack and put this all behind us?" Pkachu suggested.

 

Ginji shrugged. "Sure. Except for the part where I came up with that plan to damage it with its own attack."

 

"And the part when I saved you from flying off the mountain?" Pikachu asked him with a cheeky grin.

 

"Ok. Fine. That too."

 

Pikachu readied a Thundershock with a few small sparks coming from his cheeks, while Ginji lifted his foot to ready a scratch attack. Pikachu was about to release his attack when something crossed his mind.

 

"Wait. Ginji."

 

"What?" Ginji asked lowering his foot.

 

"You seemed really focused back there. Like there was something really important you were thinking about. And that couldn't have just been you trying to use a fire attack."

 

"What's your point?" Ginji asked in bewilderment.

 

"There were tiny flecks of yellow all over your body. In your feathers." Pikachu continued.

 

'Really? Weird I guess. I didn't feel anything."

 

Pikachu thought back to the yellow dots in Ginji's feathers. They looked to be part of a move like growl, leer, or tail whip. But Ginji's attitude there told Pikachu it was a different attack than any of those. He was then reminded of Ginji's adrenaline in Thunderwave Cave with the Nidoran. Focus Energy. Of course. Ginji must have been starting to learn that since their second mission, and would have perfected it right now had Pikachu not interrupted with Thunderwave. Though there was still something that seemed a little... off about Ginji's energy when it came to the move. Like it was changing his behaviour. Ginji was rash sure, but the way he attacked the Nidoran and the way he snapped at him out of nowhere sort frightened Pikachu. He was considering telling Ginji about it for a split second, but quickly shot the consideration down. Things must be scary enough for a Torchic boy with amnesia already if Ginji getting upset with him yesterday was anything to go by.

 

"I think you learned Focus Energy. That's it." Pikachu told him. That would do for now.

 

"Um... Yeah. Maybe I did." Ginji said. His tone was a lot less boastful than Pikachu expected. Guess Focus Energy wasn't as exciting for Ginji to learn as something like ember or even better flamethrower would be.

 

"So...nice job." Pikachu congratulated him.

 

"Um... Thanks." Ginji said unenthusiastically. "It would still be nice if I could learn a fire type move though."

 

Pikachu mused to himself for a moment. "Tell ya what. Let's take care of this Baltoy now, and after that we can practice learning Ember."

 

"You really think practicing is going to do any good for me?" Ginji gave Pikachu a look that screamed 'booooriiinggggg' all over.

 

"Hey, if you just learned Focus Energy then there's no doubt Ember's the next move for you to learn." Pikachu told him.

 

"Alright." Ginji shrugged.

 

The Baltoy began to break free of its paralyzed state below them, prompting Pikachu to shout:

 

"Ginji! Now!"

 

Ginji quickly lifted his foot and swiped it across the Baltoy's body while Pikachu shot it with a classic tackle.

 

The Baltoy went rolling across the mountain floor, being stopped by the side of the mountain it had rolled up against. It finally rolled to the side with swirls in its eyes.

 

"Hope it's ok." Pikachu observed it worriedly. "It will definitely wake up feeling dizzy."

 

"It tried to attack us, Pikachu. You're really worried about your foes?" Ginji asked in confusion. Pikachu may have been a nice and caring guy but to be concerned about the wellbeing of someone who wanted to hurt you?

 

"Of course. It's a Pokémon just like us, Ginji." Pikachu told him. His voice was half serious and half shocked. As if Pikachu was surprised Ginji would ask something like that. It kind of made Ginji slump a bit. That probably wasn't the best question he could have asked Pikachu.

 

"And don't forget, we were attacking it too. The mountain is its home." Pikachu went on to remind Ginji. "This poor Baltoy was probably affected by the disasters. Just like the Sunkern, the Pidgey, and the other Pokémon we've battled in these dungeons so far. It was just acting on a whim to protect itself and its home. These disasters can do that to dungeon Pokémon." Pikachu finished off sadly.

 

Ginji didn't know what to say. He had never actually thought about it that way. Or about what the other Pokémon the two had been and would be knocking out in these mystery dungeons might be going through thanks to these disasters. Admittedly he had never been a pro at putting himself in someone else's shoes. Much less someone who was attacking you.  _"Yeah, and like Pikachu said, you were attacking them back."_  Ginji's conscious heckled him.

 

"Aren't Pokémon made to fight?" Ginji asked Pikachu, the question just popping into his mind. Not the best one he could have had at the moment but, logically weren't they?

 

"Well, yes. We do battle. To become stronger, and too defend ourselves. And maybe have a friendly little competition between our friends once in a blue moon." Pikachu answered, not too upset about Ginji's possible inappropriate question. "But, there are times when you have to recognize when you're at an advantage, and stop it before anyone gets seriously injured."

 

Ginji smirked. "It's weird how being fried, electrocuted, paralyzed, and whatever else you guys experience on a daily basis doesn't count as serious injuries around here. Wherever I come from, those things could actually kill-" Ginji stopped there as he realized finishing this sentence would only prompt Pikachu to ask more questions about things he couldn't remember. Which would then lead to more talk about his amnesia. And frankly, Ginji was getting tired of talking about and having to lie about the subject.

 

"Hmm?" Pikachu asked, curious about Ginji's mid-sentence stop.

 

"Never mind."

 

"Ok." Pikachu said.

 

Ginji decided to go back to the topic beforehand. "I wouldn't say we were at an advantage with that Baltoy though, would you?"

 

"No. I guess not. That was a bit tough." Pikachu agreed. "I guess knowing when you're at a huge advantage isn't all that easy for everyone."

 

"Yeah."

 

"Or it could be that I'm just being a bit too cautious about battling." Pikachu guessed. "Speaking of which, I may have gotten a little bit worked up about the whole Nidoran incident the other day. Heck, even me zapping the Batloy before you could attack it may have been me getting too worked up. You were just really excited because of your focus energy. Or starting to learn focus energy. That's all. It's easy for me to forget that you're just a kid."

 

"Hey, watch who you're calling just a kid, alright?" Ginji warned him, not too thrilled about being seen as a child.

 

"Well, you really are, Ginj." Pikachu teased.

 

"Whatever." Ginji puffed. "Can we go farther up the mountain now? The sooner I learn Ember, the better."

 

"Oh. Right. We should be making our way farther up now. Diglett can't wait forever." Pikachu said.

 

The two of them continued up the path. Pikachu gave one last look at the fainted Baltoy. "Still, it's too bad we don't have an oran berry or anything."

 

"C'mon, Pikachu. It's gonna be fine." Ginji sighed.

 

Pikachu silently agreed with Ginji, and continued along next to the Torchic. The two of them were quiet for a moment before Ginji broke the silence.

 

"I think that battle could have gone a lot worse."

* * *

 

"You're sure Skarmory snatching Diglett up had to do with the natural disasters?" Ginji asked after a thirteenth attempt to use ember on the nearest rock.

 

"I'm sure. Normal Pokémon don't just fly off of their homes to kidnap a random small visitor for no reason. "

 

"Food, maybe? I mean, don't Pokémon need some form of protein?" Ginji joked.

 

Pikachu gave him a look that told him most Pokémon wouldn't find that joke funny nor amusing.

 

"Sorry."

 

"Anyway, the number of Pokémon in need of rescues has shot up after these disasters started happening. I don't think this is a coincidence." Pikachu explained. "Skarmory's been effected by the disasters."

 

"So?"

 

"So if that's the case, we need to hurry up. Diglett could be in more trouble than we thought."

 

"Calm down, I'm sure Skarmory's not gonna - hey look it's an Aron!"

 

"Huh?" Pikachu ran up next to Ginji and looked around the corner of the mountain side. Sure enough, there was a small steel reptile Pokémon making its way down.

 

"Now's my chance." Ginji stated. He puffed out his chest in the exact same way he had been doing for the past few minutes now. Pikachu slowly backed out of the way of the Aron in order to let Ginji fuel with it.

 

" _Steel is weak against fire. This should be a piece of cake."_ Ginji thought to himself. "C'mon, please do Ember. Please do Ember." He pleaded with himself.

 

He puffed out his cheeks, the Aron nearing him more and more. When the steel reptile had come in a close enough range Ginji opened his mouth to let his attempted attack out.

 

Nothing but a growl. The patterns of the attack raced down the Aron's body, but no damage had been done to it. The Aron now had a stupefied look on its face.

 

"Oh, C'mon!" Ginji spat. Not too long before he was tackled to the ground by the Aron.

 

"Ah! Pikachu, do something!" Ginji cried as the Aron began pummeling him with another tackle attack.

 

"Oh, great." Pikachu groaned. "Hang on!" Pikachu darted towards him and the Aron on all fours getting ready to hit it with a tackle. The Aron must have had a mind that thinked as fast as Pikachu ran, because it got off Ginji, letting the chick Pokémon be sent flying by the yellow mouse's attack.

 

"Woooooahhhhhhh!" Ginji screeched before smacking into the mountain wall. He fell to the floor not so gently shortly after.

 

"Yikes. Sorry Ginji." Pikachu ran over to his friend. "Are you ok?"

 

"Well, Pikachu, I just landed head first into a steel mountain wall and fell hard on my face just now. So yeah, I am without a doubt ok." Ginji mumbled into the ground sarcastically before lifting his head to shout: "OF COURSE I'M NOT OK!"

 

Pikachu jumped when Ginji shouted at him. "Ok ok. I'm sorry."

 

"Next time, when I say do something, do me a favor and don't do anything." Ginji complained while picking himself up off the ground in the most pathetic way he'd ever done yet.

 

"Oh, ok. Next time I'll just let you be beaten up by whatever the ' Pokémon that landed on top of Ginji of the day' is."

 

"You have a name for the Pokémon that cause my suffering now?"

 

"Well, it does seem that whenever we go into a dungeon you get knocked down by someone, go flying, or backed up against the-" Pikachu's sentence was cut short by the Aron hitting him with such force that he went tumbling into Ginji, who went tumbling into the wall nice again. "Wall. Kind of like we are now." Pikachu squeaked.

 

"Thank you Pikachu. Not just for the whole reasoning behind the name, but because without that last bit of info I would have never known we were in fact being squished against a wall right now." Ginji choked out from between the wall and Pikachu's back.

 

" _Note to self: when in a battle, never get distracted by pointless chatter. Especially with Ginji."_  Pikachu informed himself.

 

The Aron was pushing its head against Pikachu's belly, and Pikachu was being pressed up against Ginji.

 

"What do we do now?" Ginji gasped.

 

"Hang on. I'm thinking of something." Pikachu answered.

 

"Well you better figure it out real soon. Before we both suffocate." Ginji coughed.

 

Pikachu tried to take Ginji's 'advice' and think faster. Though it wasn't the easiest thing in the world to do when you were in such an uncomfortable position. Normal attacks wouldn't be effective on a steel type, and the way he and Ginji were up against the wall to right now meant that basic attacks were out of the question. Pikachu tried prying the Aron off, but the thing was too strong. He resorted to kicking at it fiercely with his foot. That only made the Aron more agitated. It pressed the two into the wall even harder.

 

"Ow!" Ginji yelped.

 

He could use Thunderwave or Thundershock right now despite the the attack not being effective against a steel type, but that would only mean Ginji would get zapped along with the Aron. And Pikachu was sure the chick had had enough misfortune befall him already in the past couple hours. Plus, there was no way for the chick to wiggle free given the strength if this Aron. It wasn't like the wall was mossy or wet. "Where are water type Pokémon when you need them?" It didn't seem like there was a way out of this one. Pikachu then thought about Ginji's focus energy. Unless...

 

"Ginji. I need you to use Growl, then Focus Energy." Pikachu instructed.

 

"You sure?"

 

"Trust me."

 

"Ok." Ginji let out a growl, making the pattern run down Aron's body again. He then closed his eyes and focused on his energy. Pikachu could feel Ginji's fuzzy body tense up behind him.

 

"Great." Pikachu told him. Pikachu lifted his tail to the side to use tail whip. Patterns were on Aron for a third time.

 

"Alright. I'm going to use Thundershock." Pikachu whispered to Ginji.

 

Ginji shot his eyes open. "What? And electrocute me again?"

 

"Shh! Don't stop getting pumped. Focus. It won't hurt you. You'll be using focus energy, so you won't be affected as much."

 

"As much? How do you know that?"

 

"I don't. I just... I just know you can take this Ginji."

 

"That's it?!"

 

"Ginji, please! Just trust me. I promise you I know what I'm doing."

 

"Cross your heart?" Ginji opened one eye to look into Pikachu's.

 

"Hope to die." Pikachu finished the oath sincerely, looking right back into Ginji's eye.

 

"Ok then." Ginji closed his eye.

 

"Thundershock!" Pikachu called out. He released a stream of thunder from his body, zapping the Aron and Ginji. The area on the mountain lit up with the light from Pikachu's electric streams. Sparks from the attack bounced against the floor and the walk, creating a cool sparkling effect.

 

The Aron fell to the ground after the attack had ceased. It seemed to do a decent amount of damage. Of course it wouldn't have been as effective had it not been for growl and tail whip. The Aron did manage to get on its feet again, only it had a few scrapes and black spots on its body.

 

Pikachu panted heavily before looking behind him to check on his friend. "Ginji!" He called.

 

Ginji was wobbling on his feet. He had a few black spots from Pikachu's attack, but his focus energy was very much still in effect. The small sparks were zipping all over his fur, and he stood in a stance that looked like he was ready for more.

 

"Scratch, let's go!" He cried out before hurtling towards the Aron.

 

"Ginji, wait!" Pikachu tried to call out to him, but it proved to be useless. Once a Pokémon was pumped up (especially a Pokémon like Ginji), there was no stopping them.

 

Ginji clawed his foot against the Aron's face. It didn't have a whole lot of affect. The Aron just shook it off and hit Ginji with another tackle. Ginji bounced backwards, before jumping to his feet again. "You just don't know when to quit, do you?" Ginji taunted.

 

He charged into the Aron with his beak outstretched in the hopes that maybe he could even perform a peck. He only ended up smashing into Aron's hard shell and falling right over.

 

Pikachu ran over to his friend, and placed his paws on the Torchic's side in order to get him to pipe down. "Ginji, buddy, calm down." Pikachu begged him. "You're gonna wear yourself out."

 

Ginji kicked and failed in Pikachu's grip until focus energy had lost its effect. Pikachu gave him a few seconds to catch his breath.

 

""Alright. Deep breaths." Pikachu coaxed him.

 

"Uh, that. Was. Awesome." Ginji stated weakly before collapsing.

 

Pikachu shook his head before letting out a long groan. He lifted his head slowly and groggy to see the Aron stampeding in his direction. Pikachu grabbed Ginji and dodged the tackle, letting the Aron bolt headfirst into the wall.

 

"Good battle." Pikachu called to the Aron, dragging Ginji up the path.

 

"Aww, I want to... battle... some more..." Ginji yawned in a slur.

 

"Another time, bud. Another time." Pikachu comforted him.

 

"Hey, Pikachu?"

 

"Yeah, pal."

 

"Did we win that fight?"

 

"I wouldn't really say that, but we came close."

 

"Oh." Ginji sounded both dead tired and disappointed. "Well, did I do a Peck attack?"

 

"Eh, almost pal. Almost."

 

"Aw, man."

* * *

 

Pikachu had found a small cave in the side of the mountain after dragging Ginji behind him for the past half hour. The Zigzagoon were extremely timid so he didn't need to worry about them at all. Though he did come to regret forgetting the toolbox at the base. Ginji had fallen asleep partway through the trek to this cave, and a berry or seed would have been quite useful right about now. Pikachu had placed him in the most comfortable position he could. He had rested Ginji against the cave wall, with his head dipped down. It wasn't a hard task per say, but boy did Ginji snore and fidget a lot in his sleep. Pikachu only hope he didn't wake up screaming like the past two nights, over sleep so that they were here past nightfall, and he prayed to Arceus Ginji didn't sleep walk. Looking at Ginji's peaceful state reminded Pikachu more and more about his own exhaustion. He figured a short nap wouldn't hurt. The cave was dark and cool, so they were sheltered from both the sun and other Pokémon. Not to mention, they would both be rested up and ready to save Diglett and hold out a fight against Skarmory if the possibility came that they needed to fight. Pikachu crawled over to the wall opposite from Ginji, lay down on his belly, curled up, and rested his head into his arms. He slowly closed his eyes, and let himself fall to sleep.

 

Pikachu slowly opened his eyes, and looked around the cave. It looked slightly darker than it did when he found the crevice. He rubbed the sleepy dust that was still in his eyes away, and let out a yawn. He did feel somewhat refreshed, though like most who just woke up, he wouldn't mind putting his head back down and sleeping a bit more. He looked over at Ginji. The chick Pokémon was still sleeping, but had begun to stir. He was in a much different position than the one Pikachu had set him in. That confirmed that the chick did toss and kick around in his sleep a lot. Pikachu took a peek out the opening of the crevice to check what time it was. He hoped he hadn't been asleep for long. Much to his dismay, the sun had set quite a bit. The sky was already a shade of red, while the horizon was a shade of yellow.

 

"How long were we asleep?!" Pikachu asked himself in a panic.

He rushed over to Ginji's sleeping spot. He began to shake the fire chick frantically.

 

"Ginji! Wake up! We got to get a move on!"

 

Ginji's eyes started to flutter open. The chick mumbled something incoherently as Pikachu was shaking him. He was clearly not fully awake.

 

"Ginji! C'mon, it's time to get up!"

 

"Five more minutes." Ginji yawned after he had opened one eye to catch sight of Pikachu in front of his face. He closed it back up and turned his head to the side.

 

"Nope, no more minutes. You can sleep all you want once the rescue mission is complete. Right now we need to hurry. Diglett needs us now."

 

Ginji simply fell to the ground and began to snore again.

 

Pikachu smacked his forehead with his paw. "Ginji, I'm not going to drag you all the way up the mountain."

 

Ginji just rolled over to face the cave wall.

 

"Or maybe I don't have much of a choice." The mouse grabbed the chick's sides and pulled him into a sitting position. He tugged on the Torchic, pulling him along. Pikachu got the two of them out of the cave. He let go of Ginji and let him flop to the ground again. Pikachu took one good long look at the path that carried on up the mountain. Looking up the side of it, they weren't too far away from the peak now. He looked back down at his sleepy companion. Hauling Ginji the rest of the way up wasn't going to get them anywhere. And he didn't particularly feel like hoisting Ginji over his shoulder so he could carry him up either. Also, it probably wasn't the smartest move to show up to the peak where Skarmory awaited with a sleeping team member.

 

Pikachu went at a final attempt to shake Ginji awake.

 

"Ginji! C'mon, please wake up." He shook the fire bird vividly. All he received was a scratch across the cheek from Ginji's foot.

 

"Ow." Pikachu rubbed his sore cheek and looked back at his dozing friend. He let out a heavy sigh. Ginji would never let him hear the end of this one.

 

"Ok, Ginj. I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me with no choice. Thundershock!" Pikachu released a huge jolt of thunder from his body and aimed it straight at the Torchic. That got Ginji up and screeching right in mid-air as he was zapped from head to toe with Pikachu's attack.

 

Pikachu winced away and waited for the electric shocks and Ginji's screams of agony to stop. "Sorry, Ginj." He muttered.

 

Ginji met with the ground again after the attack had stopped, only to tumble on his side to the floor again. His feathers were sticking out and all frizzed, and the tips of them were blackened. His mouth hung open to let out a cry of pain.

 

"Heh heh." Pikachu walked over to him in shame. "Time for Team Barbeque to move along?"

 

Ginji leaped back up and shook himself off in a rage. He marched over to Pikachu and shoved his face in the electric rodent's so that the two of them had their eyes locked on the other's.

 

"And just what the heck was that for?!" Ginji demanded.

 

"Sorry, but I needed some way wake you. I tried shaking you multiple times but you wouldn't wake up. You know, your sleeping habits are weird. You're the one waking me up so early in the morning with an episode, yet I have a hard time getting you up." Pikachu exclaimed.

 

Ginji just growled in anger. "Why did you need to wake me up so badly?"

 

"Look at the sky."

 

Ginji did what Pikachu told him to. The sky had turned from its usual bright blue to a colour similar to that of his feathers. The sun was no longer high in the sky but sinking out of sight. It was almost dusk. The two had overslept.

 

"We slept a little longer than I had wanted us to. We need to hurry now." Pikachu was about to dash off before Ginji asked him;

 

"Hey, wait a minute! What about me learning Ember?"

 

"There's no time for that right now, Ginji. We can't keep Diglett and Dugtrio waiting forever. We'll practice another time, ok?"

 

"And I can't keep waiting to learn an actual fire type move. I'm a fire type, yet all I know are a bunch of lame attacks!"

 

"Ginji, we don't have time for this. We have to go now!" The patience that Pikachu had so much of before was visibly starting to wear off now.

 

"I'm not going to save some Diglett just because his three headed father, or fathers, or whatever you Pokémon call those things couldn't keep an eye on him without knowing how to use a fire attack! Three heads, six eyes, and they manage to lose their son! Some parent! If you want to go on ahead you can! But I want to learn an actual useful move! If I'm stuck in a Torchic's body with no memory, at least let my 'oh so pleasant' experience be something worth remembering! And I don't see how running around through 'dungeons' which aren't even dungeons and getting myself tackled, pummeled, bruised and banged up, and electrocuted just to rescue some strangers is anything like that! And I don't see how it's going to help me remember anything about myself either!"

 

Pikachu's ears flicked up in shock and after a few moments, dropped in sadness, as did his head. He looked down at the ground and his paws sadly. His ears only perked up when Ginji said something else.

 

"Besides, you should have no problem getting there by yourself. What with your impossible speed that only gets faster and faster each time you say you'll slow down. So why don't you just use it to go save Diglett right now and leave me here. After all, it is what you're good at." Ginji added as salt in the wound.

 

Pikachu lowered his head and ears even further down and by this point his ear tips were touching the ground. He turned around sadly, ready to continue the trek up the mountain. He let out a sad sigh.

 

"I'm sorry that I zapped you. I was just really worried we might not make it in time. And I'm sorry I've been wasting your time these past few days." Pikachu apologized. He turned his head back to Ginji. "I won't be too far up ahead. We're almost at the peak so if you want to join me later on you know where I'll be. If not then wait here. I'll be back with Diglett and when we get off the mountain and are back at the base, you can decide if you still want to be on my rescue team. If you don't that's fine. It's your choice. We can help you remember who you are some other way. Or we can find someone who can."

 

Ginji didn't answer. He sat on the edge of the mountain, staring off into the distance. He kicked his legs a bit out of boredom and not knowing what else to say to Pikachu after that whole ordeal.

 

"Ginji, please come with me. I can't do this without you. We're a team." Pikachu pleaded.

 

Ginji just closed his eyes and turned his head away.

 

Pikachu turned back to head up the mountain, though not before giving Ginji one final sad look. He ran off in an actual slow pace, until Ginji could no longer hear his feet pattering on up the mountain.

 

Ginji kicked a small stone off the edge of the mountain. He puffed out his chest and got ready to try an ember attack once again. He stood up on the mountain edge, puffed his cheeks out, and opened his mouth out to the air. A puff of smoke escaped his beak and drifted off into the sky.

 

"THIS IS STUPID!" He shouted out to no one. Not knowing what else to do, he crashed back down on the edge of the mountain, and kicked his feet out so they were dangling off the edge again.

 

_"Who am I? Why and how did I even become a Pokémon in the first place?_ "

 

He stared at the setting sun, and looked down at the land below him. He didn't know why, but he felt so relaxed. He wasn't scared of falling off the edge or anything, He was for lack of better words enjoying the view. Like he was hypnotized by it. Ginji didn't know if he had ever just stopped to look at something and forgot about everything else and all his problems before. He supposed if he did, he wouldn't remember. What exactly was so great about looking at something simple like a landscape or a night sky full of stars? He wondered that the morning he came outside the base to find Pikachu asleep outside. The mouse had told him he had been stargazing the night before. Ginji didn't think he had ever understood what was so interesting or cool about staring at those kind of things. Even when he was really little. From how much he could remember at least. For some reason though when he was actually enjoying the view, he didn't think about what made it so nice. It just was. Maybe sunsets just did that to him.

 

"The Pokémon around here live in a pretty cool place. And the Pokémon on the mountain get to look at this all the time."

 

He then thought of how stupid he had been just a minute ago. What was the point in arguing with Pikachu when he could be doing so many other things while he was a Pokémon?

 

"I may not have asked to be a Pokémon or know why I turned into one, or even how long it's going to be before I find out who I am and how to become a human again. But one thing's for sure. I'm not going to find out by sitting around here and being moody."

 

"What am I doing?" Ginji asked himself. He worked up the nerve to stand up, and look at the path ahead of him.

 

"I don't want to let Pikachu have all the fun."

 

Ginji looked back out at the sunset. "Sure am gonna miss the view though."

 

Giving one last glance at the horizon, Ginji took off in a run, moving as fast as those skinny legs he had cursed so much could carry him.

* * *

 

Ginji noticed the walls and ground of the mountain become less steel and more rock as he went on up the mountain. The Pokémon he kept seeing were different too. Mostly Geodude, Meditite, and Tyrogue. He had even had to sneak past a sleeping Pinsir. Ginji was just glad he hadn't woken it up. He was trying to avoid most battles for the time being. His main focus was meeting Pikachu at the peak so they could rescue Diglett. He also wanted to save his energy for a possible battle with the Skarmory.

 

He was sure he had gotten quite far (or what was considered far by 'not too far from the peak' standards) when he had encountered both a Meditite and a Tyrogue. The two were blocking the entrance to the small cave like area leading upwards.

 

"Beat it!" Ginji challenged them. He tried to sound as fearless as possible. He wasn't entirely sure he could handle two Pokémon at once on his own. As much as he would never admit that to anyone.

 

"Where's your team member when you need him?"

 

Ginji stopped to think after that thought. He answered that question with the logical thought.

 

_"Ahead of you probably saving Diglett right now."_

 

The two Pokémon of course didn't take any orders from Ginji. The stood in their spot, glaring at him.

 

"Then I guess you guys want to do this the hard way." Ginji threatened. The number one rule for him was to make sure his confidence overrode his uneasiness.

 

Ginji let out a growl to lower the duo's defense. The Meditite used meditate to balance out Ginji's growl. In return of its attack being lowered, the Meditite had patterns go up its body rather than down showcasing its defense and special attack rising. Ginji prepared a focus energy. The Tyrogue charged at him with a basic attack. Ginji stood still and let it charge. His feathers flared up, his small body became tense, and he could feel little sparks jump all over him. He was no more than six inches away from being striked by the Tyrogue before he skidded out of way. The Tyrogue ran right past him, tripping over its feet and onto the floor.

 

"Focus Ginji. Focus. It's like Pikachu said. Don't wear yourself out." Ginji kept in reminding himself. It was hard for him to think with his mind when his feet told him to just go for it. It wasn't like Ginji thought things over much at all. Much less when he was pumped up. "No. You have to focus. It's called focus energy for a reason. Focus your energy. Don't just rush into things." He told himself in vain.

 

The Tyrogue got back up and rushed to him.

 

"Ok. Now it's time to rush into things." Ginji ran towards it as well. Before the two collided Ginji lifted his foot to deliver a scratch across its face. They attack worked, and the Tyrogue fell to the ground after a second of temporary blindness. Ginji stumbled as well do to having one foot in the air. He somersaulted across the floor until he was able to stop himself by pressing his foot against the ground.

 

"Well, that could have gone a bit better."

 

Ginji shook himself off as he rose to his feet. He looked behind him. The Tyrogue lay on the floor with swirls in its eyes. It must have been tuckered out from an early battle. The Meditite sprang to action and was drifting to where Ginji stood. The chick Pokémon had no trouble dodging the Meditite's basic attack. This Meditite wasn't very fast and like a lot of the Pokémon he had seen in the dungeons, didn't have super powerful attacks. Ginji knocked it away with a simple scratch. The entrance to another enclosed part of the mountain was open and Ginji headed on without looking back at the two Pokémon he had just fought.

 

"I didn't need to take them down after all. With Focus Energy, I didn't even need to worry about them much. I guess you just have to know how to control an attack." Ginji told himself in amazement. He remembered what Pikachu had told him earlier. 'Sometimes you have to know when you're at an advantage.'

 

Ginji could definitely see he was at a bit of an advantage there. Battling those two would have been pointless. And needlessly defeating them in battle wouldn't have been necessary.

 

"I mean, what's the point in fighting if there's no fun or challenge involved?" Ginji smugly thought to himself.

 

He carried on to the peak, which he was sure was just up ahead. He could see a cave opening which looked even darker inside from around the corner. After getting out of the enclosed cave like space and looking off the side of the mountain. It was quite a way down. He and Pikachu had climbed up high that was for sure. Though it was hard to tell just how huge the mountain stood as the sky was turning purple now and the sun was almost completely down. He looked up, and saw the tip of the mountain just ten feet above him. He was almost there. But maybe a just a few minutes to stop and look at the view wouldn't hurt. He did see a couple of stars start to become visible. Pikachu had told him he would stargaze every so often. Ginji lay down on his back and stared directly into the stratosphere. It was kind of relaxing.

 

Before Ginji could get too distracted his mind snapped back to the task at hand. "Ugh, never mind. I need to get to Pikachu now. I don't have time for this." He stood up and marched off into the cave entrance.

* * *

 

Pikachu entered what could be described as an actual dungeon made from steel. It was very dark-darker than any cave part of the mountain he and Ginji had been through. The only source of light was from the steel like rock that the place was made from. Even then, it was a very mild source of light. The middle part of the cave in particular was especially dark. Pitch black even. Pikachu could vaguely make out a tall and narrow bit of steel from across the cave. He used the electricity in his cheeks to help light up the cave a bit. It was then he saw the bit of steel was actually a ledge built into the cave's back wall. The ledge itself was on the opposite side of the wide steel ledge Pikachu was standing on right now.

 

"This has to be the peak. It's an odd and creepy peak for a mountain, but this has to be it. That means Diglett must be here!"

 

"Hello? Who's there?" A small and high voice squeaked from above the ledge. "I see a small light. Kind of sparky, so I know someone's there."

 

Pikachu was flooded with a wave of excitement. "Are you Diglett?" He asked the voice.

 

"Yes. That's me. Who are you?" Diglett asked in a frightened voice.

 

"I'm Pikachu." Pikachu shot some more electricity out of his cheeks in an attempt to make himself visible to the young Pokémon. "Can you see me?"

 

"Yeah. A little bit. But I know what a Pikachu looks like."

 

"Yeah. I guess you would." Pikachu toned the sparks coming from his cheeks down. "Don't you worry, kiddo. I'm here to rescue you."

 

"You are? That's good!"

 

"Are you alright?"

 

"I'm scared." Diglett chattered.

 

"Where are you right now?"

 

"I'm on the top of the narrow steel ledge."

"Don't worry little guy. It's gonna be ok. I'm gonna get you down and-"

 

Careful!" Diglett screeched at Pikachu. "Don't walk any further!"

 

Pikachu jumped at Diglett's shrill voice screaming at him. "Yikes! What is it?!"

 

"There's a pit right in front of you." Diglett warned him.

 

Pikachu grabbed the nearest stone and through at the pitch black space in front of him. There was no sound of the stone hitting the ground. Pikachu peered over the black space. He got the electricity in his cheeks flowing again. Sure enough, there was a huge gaping pit between the ledge Diglett was presumably in top of and the ledge he was peering over.

 

"Geez!" Pikachu scampered as far back from the pit as he possibly could. He tripped over another stone and fell onto his rear. "I can't even see the bottom!" He called up to Diglett.

 

"I don't even know if there is a bottom. I-"

 

Diglett was cut off by a shrill screech echoing from the top of the cave. Pikachu and Diglett both looked up to catch side of a tall figure whooshing down from wherever it was it was originally perched. Pikachu shot huge streams of electricity from both his cheeks to illuminate the cave entirely. The flash of thunder revealed a Skarmory flying right down to the ledge Pikachu was on. It landed right in front of him with a thud. Pikachu bounced off the ground for a split second before landing back on his rear. The Skarmory stretched its steel gray wings out and let out another screech. It walked towards Pikachu, towering over the mouse. It bent its head down until it was staring directly into Pikachu's eyes. Pikachu winced his head away from it until his cheek was against the floor.

 

"And just what do you think you are doing here, mousey?!" The Skarmory demanded. It had a feminine voice, so this one was obviously female.

 

"I..." Pikachu started with a shaky voice. He then slid out from beneath Skarmory and stood up in front of her. "I've come to rescue Diglett, Skarmory." He stated boldly. "You better release him now!"

 

Skarmory let out another ear piercing screech. Pikachu pulled his ears down the sides of his cheeks in pain.

 

"HOW DARE YOU?! IT'S THEIR FAULT!" She hollered.

 

"Who's fault?" Pikachu cried out still grasping his ears.

 

"I haven't slept in days thanks to all these earthquakes! They frighten me so! Every night we have them!"

 

"Yes, but what has Diglett got to do with the earthquakes?"

 

"It's because of this brat's ilk running wild underground!"

 

"That's not true!" Pikachu objected.

 

"What? You mean to tell me these earthquakes aren't true?!" Skarmory shoved her face right in Pikachu's. The electric mouse backed away from being startled. "Please, mousey. Don't make me laugh."

 

"I mean, it is true that we have had many earthquakes lately. But it would take a lot more than a group of Diglett and Dugtrio burrowing underground to cause them. They're part of the natural disasters. We don't know what's causing them but we have top rescue teams out investi-"

 

Pikachu was silenced by one of her terrible screeches.

 

"OH, HUSH UP!"

 

"Jeez louise, calm down, will ya?" Pikachu squeaked.

 

"DON'T YOU TELL ME TO BE CALM YOU SPARKY LITTLE RAT!"

 

"That's a new one." Pikachu said meekly. "What are you, my older brother? But even he knows when to chill and doesn't scream at the top of his lungs like a little kid."

 

"I SHALL FIGHT YOU IF YOU KEEP THIS UP!" Skarmory screamed at him.

 

"If that's what it will take to rescue Diglett, then go ahead!" Pikachu challenged her with all the courage he had. Deep inside, he was a bit intimidated by Skarmory's voice, agitated behaviour, and the fact that she was quite taller than he was. But he was determined to get Diglett back to Dugtrio safely, and was not about to go down without a fight.

 

"Pikachu, don't!" Diglett cried out in fear.

 

"Don't worry, Diglett. I'm the leader of a rescue team. Team Heroes. It's my job to rescue other Pokémon, and if that means I have to battle Pokémon effected by the disasters, then that's what I have to do." Pikachu told Diglett with determination.

 

"You're part of a rescue team? Then where are the other members?" Diglett asked out of curiosity.

 

"Oh... They're um... you see it's kind of a long story, I'll-" Pikachu fumbled before being cut off by Skarmory again.

 

"I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS NONSENSE! PECK!" Skarmory called out with her beak outstretched as she flew towards Pikachu. The electric mouse Pokémon let out a thundershock with all the energy he had. Skarmory flew around the streams of electricity as if they were nothing but a bunch of twigs.

 

"Nice try, mousey! But you're going to have to do a lot better than that!" She taunted. The steel bird Pokémon striked the much smaller Pokémon hard in the side with a peck attack. Pikachu went flying back, bouncing off the hard steel ground.

 

"Pikachu!" Diglett cried out in worry.

 

"Oh, be quiet, you!" Skarmory snapped at the small cylinder Pokémon.

 

She flew over to where Pikachu lay, and landed right in front of the mouse. She stepped over him until Pikachu found himself underneath her. He was about to raise his tail to use tail whip before Skarmory stepped on it, pinning it to the ground.

 

Pikachu yelped in pain.

 

"Ha ha! I'm not afraid of a teeny tiny tail wag!" Skarmory scoffed. She gave Pikachu another peck to the face.

 

Pikachu flinched at the pain. He tried to get up and run out from under Skarmory, but was knocked to the ground. He forgot that Skarmory still had his tail in the grasp of her foot. He tried running in the hopes that his tail would get free, but that only prompted Skarmory to grasp his tail tighter.

 

"Ah ah ah. No escape, mousey. You brought this fight on yourself." She snickered.

 

Pikachu used his Thundershock, zapping Skarmory until she let go of his tail. She cried in pain as electric volts were sent shooting through her body. Pikachu bolted away from her to attack from a distance. He would go for paralysis next. Of course, it was hard to battle in the dark, so all he could rely on right now was his electric attacks. Especially since one of Skarmory's types was flying.

 

Skarmory stumbled back, but shook the electric attack off.

 

"Oh, you'll pay for that one, mousey!" Skarmory flew up in the air, back up to the dark cave ceiling.

 

Pikachu stopped at a cave wall to catch his breath. He looked around for Skarmory who was nowhere to be seen.

 

"Diglett, did you see where Skarmory went?" He asked the burrow Pokémon in a huff.

 

"Yeah, she flew up." Diglett answered shaking.

 

"Where? I don't see her." Pikachu released some sparks from his cheeks to help him see. The downside was he was too far from the ceiling to illuminate it.

 

"Look out!" Diglett cried out.

 

Before Pikachu could heed Diglett's warning, the image of Skarmory spiraling down to him was presented. He didn't even have time to run. He felt two large bird like feet hit his back with such great force. Sure that hurt, but not nearly as much as what followed. Skarmory dug her three claws into Pikachu's back hard. Pikachu let out a loud squeak of pain. That didn't make Skarmory let go. Instead, she took off with Pikachu still clutched onto by her talons. She lifted him off the ground with very little effort. She carried him high above the dark pit and the ledge Diglett was trapped on. Pikachu stared down into the dark abyss and at the horrified look he could make out on Diglett's face. Now Pikachu was faced with three things. The fear of Skarmory dropping him into the void below with who knows what was at the bottom if there even was one or far down it was, the mortified look on young Diglett's face and the thought of how terrified he must be right now, and the pain of Skarmory's sharp talons digging into his fur and skin. Thankfully he didn't think he was bleeding. Though the pain in his back was the least of his three worries right now. One wrong move and he would be dropped onto the pit below.

 

"Skarmory! Please! Don't hurt this Pikachu! Put him down! Let him go!" Diglett begged in fear.

 

"Or else you'll what, little mole? Cry, scream, and whine some more?" Skarmory picked on him.

 

"No! Just please don't hurt him. He didn't do anything to you!"

 

"And zapping me is doing nothing to me?"

 

Diglett just shook in terror.

 

"Besides, I won't hurt him. But whatever's in the dark and scary pit might." Skarmory shoved her talons out further to scare Pikachu. The mouse closed his eyes, bracing himself for whatever Skarmory would do to him next. He was still dangling above the pit.

 

"Unless you stop wailing that is. I'm sick of hearing your bratty annoying voice."

 

"I promise." Diglett swore with a meek tone.

 

"Good."

 

Skarmory lowered her head so she would speak into Pikachu's ear.

 

"And if you use Thundershock on me right now you know what will happen." Skarmory turned her head to the dark pit she was hovering above with Pikachu in her grasp.

 

Pikachu realized he was completely trapped. He couldn't attack her or else she would drop him to his doom. And he had a feeling she wasn't bluffing. All he could do was close his eyes and pray for his survival. Pikachu felt pretty sorry for himself now.

 

" _Some hero I turned out to be."_

 

"Growl!" An all too familiar young voice shouted after a few moments of silence and fear.

 

Pikachu looked to his right to see a small ball of fire flying towards him and Skarmory.

 

"Woah!" Pikachu cried, closing his eyes again and pulling his ears over his face. His heart raced after he heard Skarmory's shriek of pain above him. He was being shaken around thanks to Skarmory flapping about in the air, squawking out in pain. Man, did she really have a good grip on things. No wonder she was able to get Diglett all the way up here.

 

"Hey, Pikachu? Is that your other team member?" Diglett asked.

 

Pikachu looked back to his right once Skarmory had stopped flapping around like a maniac. He let some more sparks out if his cheeks to get a better look at who he knew was standing on the wide ledge. The small figure of Ginji walked closer towards the edge, with an astounded look of excitement on his face.

 

"I can't believe it. I actually used ember! I meant to use Growl but it came out as ember!" the young chick cheered in amazement. "Alright!" He exclaimed while leaping in the air.

 

"It sure is, kiddo. It sure is." Pikachu confirmed with a smile.

 

"Oh, look. Another pathetic little Pokémon has come to the rescue. We can't have that happening, now can we?" Skarmory mocked. She took one talon off of Pikachu's back, so that she was only holding onto him by the scruff of his neck with the other one.

 

"Aaaaahhhhj!" Pikachu wailed.

 

"Pikachu!" Ginji shouted out of worry for his friend who was now dangling helplessly above the dark pit in front of him by just the scruff of his neck.

 

"Now let's make sure we all understand each other." Skarmory started with much hostility in her voice. "If anyone attacks me, it's bye bye electric mousey. Kapish?"

 

Ginji hadn't been prepared for something like this. A battle sure, but nothing like seeing his team mate's life being threatened. This Skarmory must have been affected by the disasters real bad.

 

"Great. Just when I learned Ember too. Now what are we gonna do?" Ginji looked at Pikachu. The electric rodent's eyes met his. Both of them were desperate and were looking into each other's eyes (or at least the faint glints they could make out of the other's eyes) to see if the other one had any brilliant ideas. If Ginji or Pikachu were to attack Skarmory right now, it would mean the end for Pikachu. And even if she did happen to be bluffing, who's to say she wouldn't accidentally drop him while suffering the effects of their attacks? And there is no way Ginji could tease her to go after him without dropping Pikachu first. They really were in a tight spot now. Ginji thought as hard as he could. There had to be a way to trick Skarmory to come closer to the ledge with Pikachu still in her hold.

 

Was Skarmory bluffing? She wouldn't actually drop him, would she? He remembered Pikachu telling him that she was most likely effected by the natural disasters. Surely being effected by the disasters wouldn't push someone to do something so cruel? Ginji scanned around the dark cave and racked his brain hard. He needed to find something-anything that would help get Pikachu free. Planning a strategy at a time like this was difficult enough, but having to do so in the dark was a nightmare. Looking at the pitch black part in the middle of the cave and seeing the figure of Skarmory flapping above the darks space with a smaller figure held in her talons, an idea was coming to Ganji. How far away were Skarmory and Pikachu from the ledge anyway? How wide was the pit? Maybe he could try attacking Skarmory so that she would flail around again and end up closer to the ledge? That way, if she did drop Pikachu, he might be close enough to land on the ledge. Maybe trying to challenge her own strategy would distract her and then he could perform that step?

 

"Hey, Skarmory!" Ginji called.

 

"What is it, chicky?" Skarmory sneered.

 

"How do you expect to attack us if you're just going to keep on flying there with Pikachu like that?" Ginji questioned.

 

"What?"

 

Pikachu squirmed uncomfortably in Skarmory's talon. As painful as it was having three claws dig into his back, it beat being held by the scruff of his neck knowing all it would take for him to fall now was Skarmory letting go of him with just her one talon. He didn't think what Ginji had just challenged her with was the best thing he could have said to challenge her. Skarmory could very well drop him right now and then go after Ginji. She didn't need to bring him back to the ledge to attack. Though the way he saw Ginji's small figure move slowly on the ledge told Pikachu that his teammate had something up his sleeve. He hoped Ginji knew what he was doing

 

"I mean, you can't keep flapping around in that spot for the rest of the night." Ginji continued.

 

"No, but if I didn't have mousey here then that would mean less extra weight, now wouldn't it?" Skarmory asked threateningly. She reached he talon out lower to the abyss. Pikachu shut his eyes tight, flinching.

 

Ginji looked at the figure of his friend with much concern. _"Nice one. Brilliant distraction, Ginji."_ What else could he say to her? He had never felt so useless before.

 

"I am willing to make a bargain though." Skarmory compromised.

 

"A bargain?" Ginji asked.

 

"Yes. Your little sparky friend's life for for Diglett's continued imprisonment."

 

That was it. Ginji was hit with one of these big decisions. Having to choose between the wellbeing of two people. Or in this case, Pokémon. Naturally, he wanted to choose Pikachu, though knowing the yellow mouse, he would never forgive himself if they weren't able to rescue a client.

 

"Ginji, don't! There's no way she'll keep her word for either of us!" Pikachu warned him.

 

"Hush up!" Skarmory demanded, clawing Pikachu across the ear with her free talon.

 

"Ow!" Pikachu whimpered.

 

"You better hurry up, boy! These two can't wait forever." He gestured to the higher ledge where Ginji assumed Diglett was on.

 

Ginji became more panicked _. "Ok think. Think. There has to be something you can do. Something you can distract her with. Besides small talk."_  Ginji thought of his focus energy and the little sparks that jumped through his feathers while the move was in motion.

 

" _This one might be worth a shot."_

 

Ginji used his focus energy move, tensing his body up and letting himself get pumped.

 

"What on earth are you doing?" Skarmory asked him wretchedly, watching little sparks start to appear over where she could see Ginji's figure standing.

 

Ginji didn't bother answering. He needed to focus.

 

_"Control. That's the key."_  He kept telling himself.

 

He waited for the energy inside him to build up completely. He could feel his feathers start to frizz up and his feet start to itch below him. That was indication that he was ready for his next plan of action.

 

"Hope Skarmory likes surprises." He smirked to himself.

 

Part of him wanted to tell Pikachu what he was planning so the mouse could cooperate accordingly, but the part of him with common sense (Pikachu may have joked about that being a miracle) knew he couldn't do that with Skarmory in plain earshot. His only option now was praying that Pikachu would do what he asked when he ordered the attack without question.

 

He peeked one eye open to look down at his body. The sparks of yellow were now consuming all of his feathers

 

"Ok. Here goes."

 

Ginji darted out of the spot he was standing in to and ran to a wall.

 

"What in the world was that?" Skarmory spewed. "You certainly aren't going to frighten me by running around nonsensical."

 

"No, but I might drive you insane by doing it."

 

Ginji proceeded to rush back and forth from one stone wall to the other, his source of light being provided by the yellow sparks crackling through his feather via focus energy. He kept a close eye on Skarmory and Pikachu during this procedure, studying the way Skarmory hovered in the air. He needed to time this just right.

 

Skarmory slowly flew forward with Pikachu locked tightly in her grasp. She desperately tried to focus on Ginji; forcing her eyes to zip to wherever the chick covered in yellow sparks of light was speeding to at the same pace as him proved to be near impossible. The small fire bird was fast, and his focus energy wasn't necessarily increasing his speed, but it certainly was contributing to boosting his agility. The bright yellow sparks of light weren't helping matters either. Which was odd, because one would think they would have made it easier to focus on the target. But they ended up doing the exact opposite due to how bright they were. The glowing sparks hopping all over and around the body of the target while said target was bolting around a small space each second were enough to cause a Pokémon a nauseating headache. Every time Skarmory blinked she opened her eyes to find Ginji's location to be somewhere else on the ledge, only for him to end up somewhere else within the next two seconds. She decided to fly in closer to her foe, careful not to loosen her grip on the yellow mouse she held in her claws.

 

''What on earth are you doing? Stop that! You aren't going to get anywhere with that nonsense!'' Skarmory's frustration was getting worse by the second. Her eyes started to roll around in her skull faster in a feeble attempt to keep her attention on this cocky Torchic boy. Pikachu was faring better than her, but even he was getting dizzy from watching his friend (or at least what he could see of him thanks to the focus energy effects) run around on the ledge. Even Diglett looked like he was about to collapse from dizziness, swirls now forming in his eyes. Skarmory's eyeballs continued to roll back and forth, side to side until her red pupils finally fell into the back of her eye sockets, leaving only the yellow part of here eyeballs visible before swirls formed in them as well as Diglett's.

 

''Stop it! I command you! Stop this at once! My poor eyes and head! Or else I'll drop the mousey!'' She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, shaking her head in order to refresh her eyesight.

 

"Now, Pikachu! Use Thundershock, and then climb up her back!" Ginji hollered as if right on cue after she threatened to drop Pikachu if he didn't stop driving her nuts.

 

"What?! Ginji, are you se-"

 

"Just do it!" Ginji silenced him.

 

"I hope he knows what he's doing." Pikachu prayed to himself in fear.

 

The electric rodent Pokémon released a stream of thunder, sending it surging through Skarmory's body. Skarmory screeched in pain. Everyone knew electric attacks were a flying type's worst nightmare. That was mostly the reason she restrained and threatened Pikachu in the first place. She let go of Pikachu upon impact, but the mouse grabbed onto her clawed foot with his tiny hands. He climbed up her leg and then her side, getting a good grip on her outstretched wing. He used it to boost himself up onto her back, clutching onto it.

 

"Now what?" He asked Ginji, raising his voice to be heard over Skarmory's cry of agony.

 

"Up her neck and jump off of her head!" Ginji yelled.

 

"But I don't know if I'm close enough to-"

 

"Just do it! Quickly! Before she becomes mobile again!"

 

Pikachu zoomed up the steel bird Pokémon's thick neck until he was perched on the top of her head. He peered from over it to look at the pit below him and the edge of the cliff leading to pit. He tried to determine how close Skarmory was from it. He was a solid jumper, his species being gifted with mouse-like acrobatics, but he was still unsure. One wrong move and he would be cast into the dark pit with a bottom no one could see from up where he was. If it even had a bottom at all.

 

"Sometime today would be great!" Ginji heckled him.

 

Pikachu still hesitated. "How do you-"

 

"Just trust me!"

 

Pikachu then felt the electricity from his Thundershock cease, mobilizing Skarmory again. She flapped her wings ferociously. Pikachu clung onto her head for dear life.

 

"Why, you little rat!" Skarmory screamed. Pikachu took a deep breath and launched himself off of her. He unwillingly flipped through the air as he felt himself fall forward. He opened his eyes to see the ledge with Ginji now standing right on the edge only mere inches in front of him. He reached out for it as far as his stubby arm would let hm. He continued to fall farther down until he felt his fingertips brush the stone ledge. He was unable to get a grip on it. He wailed as his fingers slipped right off of it. He braced himself for whatever was to come next.

 

He then felt a small clawed foot clamp around his wrist.

 

"Gotcha! It's a good thing both you and our attacks are a bright yellow color. We needed some light in this pitch black room to pull this off."

 

Pikachu looked up to see the orange-red fluffy face of Ginji illuminated by the focus energy effect in his feathers. Just as familiar as the young voice he'd heard from him.

 

Pikachu smiled widely at him.

 

The two friends were brought back to the battle at hand by Skarmory's loud screech as she flew down towards where Pikachu was dangling off the edge of the stone cliff from Ginji's foot. Her steel beak was pointed straight in their direction. She looked as ticked and vicious as ever. Ginji hastily hoisted Pikachu up right before flinging him over his head, causing the mouse to go flying backwards towards the entrance of the dark room. Skarmory crashed head first into ledge where Pikachu was just dangling from with a loud scream. With such force, she had knocked a chunk of stone out of the ledge.

 

Pikachu bounced off the rock hard floor a couple times before rolling along the floor, being stopped by the stone wall surrounding the entrance.

 

"Thanks, pal." Pikachu grunted, clutching his scrapped sides.

 

''Heh, anytime.'' Ginji gaffed, noticing Pikachu's discomfort.

 

Neither one of them had a chance to plan their next method of attack because Skarmory swooped right towards Ginji with her beak aimed right at him, prepared with a peck attack. She knocked the little chick Pokémon straight off his feet, sending him flying through the air in the same manner he had sent his partner before him. It wasn't the wall that broke his flight though. It was Pikachu. Pikachu let out an 'oomph' when Ginji smacked into him.

 

"Oh, of course there's a downside to focus energy. The sparks make it easy to let your enemies know where you are in the dark once you stop running around like a maniac." Ginji complained.

 

"And that Focus Energy isn't going to last forever." Pikachu reminded him. "Any other plans?"

 

"Uh…nope. I didn't really think of what to do after my focus energy ran out."

 

"Doesn't surprise me. Do you ever think about anything?"

 

"Nope. I just wing it as I go along."

 

The two couldn't talk about the subject for long because Skarmory flew towards them, hitting the two with a quick attack. The duo bounced across the floor and off the walls opposite to one another.

 

"Think you can maybe wing it again?" Pikachu hurriedly asked him.

 

"Not while I'm being thrashed around, no!" Ginji shouted after being flung in the air and pecked repeatedly on his rear by Skarmory.

 

Diglett trembled in fear at whatever was happening down on the ledge. He couldn't see what was going on now that Ginji's focus energy was losing its effect, but from what he was hearing it didn't sound like his rescuers were in a very good spot at the moment. What made him even more frightened was the fact that there wasn't anything he could do to help. He could only call out a few words of support.

 

"Hang in there! I know you guys can do it!"

 

"Thanks. I hope you're right." Pikachu called out to him in response.

 

After Skarmory had decided she had thrashed Ginji on the behind enough, she flung him to the wall Pikachu was backed against. He landed on his belly with a thud.

 

"Ginji. It's Pikachu. You ok?" Pikachu gently shook him.

 

"Totally. After being pecked on the butt twelve times straight and chucked at a stone hard floor face first I am totally ok. Thanks for the help." Ginji groaned sarcastically.

 

"Sorry. I didn't want to agitate her even more. Besides, I could have zapped you as well if I tried attacking her with an electric move. And I think we can both agree you've had enough of that today." Pikachu tried to defend himself innocently.

 

"Oh, and a simple tackle wouldn't work for you because it doesn't involve barbequed chicken?"

 

"I don't have the patience to listen to this nonsense! You're both going to pay!" Skarmory hollered before charging at the two much smaller Pokémon.

 

Ginji and Pikachu rolled out of the way just before Skarmory smashed into the stone wall behind them. They darted behind her, before she could pick herself up off the floor from the impact. Pikachu took the opportunity to ram her with a quick attack. With the force from the attack, Skarmory stumbled forward, but managed to stay on her feet so that she could turn around and flick Pikachu away from her with her wing. Pikachu tumbled backwards against the floor so that he ended up lying flat on it next to Ginji.

 

"This bird just won't stay down! I think it's time for Ember!" Ginji readied his newly learned fire attack, but felt a harsh tug at his leg.

 

"This isn't getting us anywhere. There's no way we're going to defeat her by just firing attacks left and right at her. We're gonna wear ourselves out no doubt." Pikachu explained.

 

"So what are we supposed to do then?"

 

"We need to think of a way to tire her out before we tire ourselves out." Pikachu told him. The two were speaking loud enough for each other to be heard over Skarmory's cry of rage.

 

"But how?"

 

"Dunno. I was hoping something would come to me on the spot."

 

"Great."

 

"I DON'T LIKE EITHER ONE OF YOU TWO ONE BIT! AND YOU'RE BOTH GONNA REGRET EVER COMING HERE!" Skarmory yelled before flying towards them again. Once again, she collided with the stone wall.

 

Pikachu and Ginji stood on either side of the space she had flown across. Their eyes had more or less adjusted in the dark lair to the point where they could make out each other's figures from afar. They exchanged looks from Skarmory to each other. It was funny, looking at Skamory's form and hearing her scream in fury before smashing into a stone surface after the duo were out of her way was actually fazing her.

 

That's when a huge wave of realization washed over Ginji.  _"Of course!"_

 

"Pikachu, I have an idea." He called to his partner while Skarmory was picking herself up.

 

He could make out the form of Pikachu (that was not too hard to make out from where he stood thanks to the mouse's bright yellow fur) heading towards him speedily.

 

"Great. Lay it on me."

 

Ginji whispered into Pikachu's long ear in order to avoid Skarmory overhearing them. Pikachu nodded here and there during Ginji's explanation. It was a pretty simple plan, and it was what they had been doing thus far.

 

"Not bad. I have a good feeling it'll work."

 

"Why the heck didn't I think of this before?" Ginji wondered aloud to his teammate.

 

"Because you don't think about anything."

 

Ginji just gave Pikachu a look that told him he didn't expect any more or less of a response than that.

 

"Hey, Skarmory! Over here!" Ginji taunted. Skarmory turned to the direction she heard Ginji's voice coming from. Ginji ran out of the way moments before Skarmory flew to where he had been previously standing, letting Skarmory skid her beak along the floor before flying smack dab into another stone wall.

 

Pikachu started up a spark of electricity in his cheeks. He figured having another bright source of light while playing 'run around, tease, and avoid Skarmory while making her crash into stone walls' akin to Ginji's focus energy sparks would irritate her eyes.

 

"Hey, Skarmory over here. Follow the light from my red dots." Pikachu chanted, before running on all fours away from where she had banged into the wall behind Ginji. Skarmory got up and flew after him. He kept the electricity from his cheek pouches going, providing him with a light to see beneath his feet. He was ever so thankful because he saw the end of the ledge and the dark pit just next to him. He rebounded there, making Skarmory do the same while she was over the pit. Pikachu head for the stone wall up in front of him, before turning away from it mere inches away from hitting it, causing Skarmory to not be so lucky and get another bash on the forehead.

 

"Hey, birdie! Come and get me!" Ginji teased.

 

_Smash!_

 

"Na na na na na."

 

_Bang!_

 

"That the best you can do? C'mon. A Pidgey could do more damage than you."

 

_Crash!_

 

"Hey, Pikachu. I just thought of something. What if we accidentally fall off the ledge ad into the pit?"

 

"Didn't thing about that before? Kind of odd you're the one to think of it now."

 

"Yeah, weird. Don't know why I just thought of this now. So what happens then?"

 

"You know what? It's probably best if we go back to not thinking about it after all."

 

"Works for me."

 

_Wham!_

 

"You can't hit me! You can't hit me!"

 

_Blam!_

 

The cycle repeated for a solid few minutes and by then Skarmory had managed to take out even more chunks of stone from her collisions. She was now closer to the pit again, standing in the same area she had flown in when Pikachu had arrived on his own. She had multiple bruises on her body now.

 

"You ready to call this match a tie and release Diglett now?" Pikachu asked her.

 

"Never!" She shouted defiantly.

 

"You're right, Ginji. She won't be defeated so easily."

 

Ginji thought for a second. Having learned Ember, having an electric type for a partner, and Skarmory being a steel-flying duel type, he figured now would be the perfect time to experiment a bit.

 

"I think it's time we tried our first fire electric combo attack." Ginji suggested to Pikachu.

 

"You mean attack her together?"

 

"Yes, Pikachu. That's what a combo attack is." Ginji sighed. He only did so briefly before going back into his confident posture. "Fire and electric epic-ness."

 

"I'm all for that, Ginj. There's just one thing I need to tell you before we do this."

 

"What?"

 

"Next time think of a slightly better name for it than fire electric epic-ness."

 

"Whatever."

 

Pikachu got on his fours and prepared to release a stream of electricity from his body, while Ginji puffed out his chest and flared his feathers, ready to launch an Ember.

 

"I'VE HAD IT UP TO HERE WITH YOU TWO! PREPARE FOR DEFEAT!" Skarmory flew at them with her claws and beak aimed at her targets, getting ready for a peck and scratch double attack.

 

"Thundershock!" Pikachu called out, shooting a wave of electricity directly at her.

 

"Ember!" Ginji called out shortly after, opening his mouth and letting multiple balls of fire escape and shoot at the steel bird.

 

Skarmory was hit with a huge jolt of electricity as well as a sharp burning sensation thanks to Ginji's ember. She fell to the floor in pain, overtaken by the intensity of being electrocuted and burnt at the same time.

 

Diglett shut one eye, and left the other one half open. The fire and lightning brightened up the cave a large amount. Or at least where Pikachu and Ginji were attacking Skarmory so Diglett could see what was going on easier. It was more Skarmory's ear-piercing screech that was scaring Diglett than the combo attack and even the situation itself. This attack must be doing a great deal ff damage, and Diglett could only imagine how much that would have to hurt a steel flying duel type like Skarmory.

 

Pikachu and Ginjj continued the attack until the two were out of energy. And it took a lot out of them to nail the combo, and the fact that they had just been running about to tire Skarmory out didn't help. As soon as their attacks had stopped, Skarmory started panting heavily. Pikachu and Ginji did so as well, having been drained out from that attack.

 

Skarmory struggled to get up, only to have her feet collapse underneath her. She tried lifting her head up, but it fell back down to the floor immediately. She groaned before swirls formed in her eyes. Team Heroes had won this battle.

 

"Sweet!" Ginji cheered.

 

Pikachu had a different reaction as he was scurrying over to the fainted Skarmory. He gently shook her.

 

"Hey. Are you ok?"

 

There was genuine concern in his voice. This shocked Ginji. He had seen Pikachu show concern over foes earlier, but this was the same Pokémon who had threatened to drop him very possibly to his death.

 

Pikachu continued to shake Skarmory. His eyes started to grow weary as she still hadn't responded. To be fair, that combo attack looked like it had done a great deal of damage on her.

 

There was finally a heavy breath from her. She rose to her feet, stretching her wings out and letting out another screech.

 

"Yikes!" Pikachu jumped up and ran back to Ginji, startled by her sudden movement.

 

"You want even more of a beat down?" Ginji challenged.

 

"Beatdown? What on earth are you talking about?" Skarmory asked in confusion. There was something much different about her voice. She had spoken calmly in contrast to her screechy loud tone she had used while battling the two.

 

"What do you mean, what am I talking about? You just battled us and we won! That means you have to release Diglett now!" Ginji continued.

 

"Diglett? Battle? I don't remember any of that." She looked around the dark cave. "Come to think of it, where am I? Why is it so dark in here?"

 

"Were at the top of Mt. Steel. In a dark cave in the mountain. You snatched me away and brought me here. I can't see very well but the two Pokémon down there with you beat you in battle, so will you let me go now?" Diglett squeaked from the high ledge he was isolated on. He sounded like he was still quite scared of being near her, but confused as to why she was acting like nothing had happened all of a sudden.

 

"I did? And I just battled? Strange, I can't seem to remember any of that happening."

 

"Don't play dumb with us! We-"Ginji started, but Pikachu swept his tail over his smaller friend's beak.

 

"Hold on, Ginji. I don't think she's playing dumb. It looks like she really can't remember what happened." He turned to the large figure of Skarmory in front of him. "You really don't remember kidnapping Diglett and battling us?" He asked her to clear things up.

 

"I'm afraid not. Just what happened? I remember being perched on a mountain peak, minding my own business. Then I heard another one of those irritating rumbles from the quakes that have been happening. Next thing I know, I'm here in this pitch black cave. Can someone please explain to me what is going on?"

 

"Basically, you took Diglett and brought him here as your prisoner, and when I got here you held Pikachu up over that dark pit behind you and threatened to-"Pikachu clamped a hand over Ginji's beak this time rather than his tail which the chick had easily spat away.

 

"She doesn't need to know all the details." Pikachu told him in a hushed voice. "Don't worry about a thing. Nothing serious happened."

 

"Alright. I suppose that's a relief. Well then, anyone know where I can find an exit?"

 

"Sure. There's a dark opening right ahead of you. Go through there, and you'll find a short tunnel. Just follow it and you'll be back outside. There's only one path in it, so you won't need to worry about getting lost or stuck. It'll probably be dark out by now though." Pikachu informed her.

 

"Thank you. I'm off. The rest of you are free to go as well." With that, she stalked past Pikachu and Ginji, heading through the cave entrance. Once the two could no longer see her figure anymore, they heard her mutter to herself:

 

"My, how embarrassing."

 

There was a short pause before Ginji spoke up

 

"She threatened your life and your just gonna let her walk away like it was no big deal?!" Ginji asked in annoyance.

 

"Maybe she did threaten my life, but she didn't end up carrying out the threat, did she? Besides, it wasn't like she knew what she was doing."

 

"Yeah, but she would have if it weren't for me! Couldn't you have at least made her apologize for terrorizing us?"

 

"Look, I'm not the type to hold grudges. We came to rescue Diglett anyway, and that's just what we managed to do."

 

"I think you're too soft." Ginj puffed.

 

"What's the point of dwelling on everything anyway? The important thing is we completed the mission successfully. Even if there were some challenges here and there." Pikachu optimized.

 

"Guys! Do you think we could leave soon? I kind of don't want to be here anymore." Diglett called down to them, overhearing their banter.

 

"Oh, right. Sorry Diglett." Pikachu rubbed the back of his head. "Guess we were too caught up in that talk."

 

Ginji and he edged toward the high ledge until they were standing right over the abyss that separated it from the lower one with much more space.

 

"How about you come down from there now?"

 

"But how am I going to get down there?" Diglett asked, shaking as he peered over the edge of the cliff he was on.

 

"That's actually a good question." Pikachu laughed nervously while looking at the dark space between the two ledges after having the realization that he had just asked a very dumb and impossible thing out of Diglett.

 

Ginji just rolled his eyes. "Well that's just great. Now what do we do?" He spat.

 

"BZBZBZBZ!" An electronic voice buzzed. Or rather, two of them. As luck would have it, the two Magnemite that Ginji and Pikachu had saved in Thunderwave Cave came hovering up from the pit. Their U magnets were sparking with electricity so they could be seen clearer (or so they themselves could see where they were going).

 

"WE RECEIVED WORD OF THIS FROM DUGTRIO. HE WAS GROWING WORRIED. I HOPE WE'RE NOT TOO LATE. BZZZ." The one Magnemite said.

 

Pikachu and Ginji looked at each other.

 

"Nope. You're actually timed really conveniently." Pikachu told them.

 

"Couldn't have cut in any closer." Ginji agreed.

 

"GREAT. WE CAN GET DIGLETT DOWN FROM THERE. BZZZ." The other Magnemite exclaimed.

 

"Thanks!" Pikachu cheered.

 

The two magnet Pokémon floated up to the cliff Diglett was on. They stopped in midair once they were face to face with him.

 

"HOLD ON TO US TIGHTLY NOW. BZZZ." The first Magnemite said.

 

Diglett flinched after getting a good look at the sparks coming from the U magnets.

 

"DON'T WORRY. WE WON'T USE OUR ELECTRICITY WHEN WE'RE BRINGING YOU DOWN. AND WE WON'T MAKE THE MISTAKE OF ZAPPING YOU ."

 

"Ok." Diglett replied. He squirmed a bit as the Magnemite latched their now regular U magnets onto his brown cylinder shaped body.

 

Frankly, Ginji didn't know whether to feel relieved or disappointed that the Magnemite had turned off their electricity as they carried Diglett down to the ledge he and Pikachu were standing on so that he couldn't make out what the bottom half of Diglett looked like.

* * *

 

"Thank you so so much for saving me, team Heroes. I've never been up that high before. I thought my heart was going to explode. And my feet still feel like they're walking on air." Diglett thanked the team, now safe and sound back at their base with the two Magnemite. Everyone grew puzzled when Diglett had used the word feet.

 

"Feet? Does he even have them?" Ginji whispered to Pikachu.

 

"Who knows? I didn't get a good look when the Magnemite brought him down." Pikachu shrugged.

 

They didn't dwell on the question for too long though. Maybe it was for the best. Ginji figured there were a lot of things about Pokémon that would just never be answered.

 

"Well, you're safe now, kiddo. That's all that matters." Pikachu said, appearing to take the Magnemite's minds off of it as well.

 

"Right. Thank you very much." Diglett thanked them for a second time. He then searched around the base with his eyes. "But, where's my papa?"

 

"I don't know. Honestly, I thought they'd be waiting here." Pikachu begin to search around as well.

 

"We're underneath you." Three identical voices bellowed together.

 

Pikachu and Ginji both jumped up in surprise at the voices.

 

"Papa!" Diglett squeaked in delight.

 

It took a second for the mouse and chick Pokémon to become steady again, but Ginji spoke up once they had.

 

"That's great and all. I mean, I love having mini-heart attacks but do you think you could show yourselves?" Ginji gawked at the three singular cylinder Pokémon.

 

"Oh, of course. How rude of us."

 

There was a bit of shuffling heard underneath everyone's feet (or at least Pikachu and Ginji's as they were the only two who happened to have visible feet) before Dugtrio popped out from underneath the ground.

 

"There you are!" Diglett cried.

 

"Diglett! You had us very worried. You're not hurt are you?" Dugtrio went up to hug their son before checking him over for any possible injuries.

 

"Nope!" Diglett answered. "It was scary but I'm alright. Thanks to Team Heroes.'

 

Dugtrio turned to the two members. "Thank you so much. We're so glad we could trust you two to recue our son. I see why you're called team Heroes. You truly are heroes."

 

Pikachu blushed at this comment. He put his hands behind his back and scuffed his foot along the dirt. "Thanks, but you really should be thanking the Magnemite. If it weren't for them, I don't think we could of gotten Diglett back here."

 

"Oh, how rude of us." Dugtrio seemed to love calling themselves rude. They turned to the two Magnemite floating above them. "Thank you."

 

"PLEASE. IT WAS THE ONLY THING TO DO. BZZ. OUR EVOLVED FORM IS A JOINED TRIO, SO WE FEEL A CERTAIN KINSHIP TO THOSE WE BEFRIEND. AFTER ALL, POKÉMON MUST HELP EACH OTHER. BZZZ." The first Magnemite explained.

 

"Is that so? Sincerely, thank you all." Dugtrio addressed all of them.

 

"I'm telling you, it was nothing. Just what rescue teams do." Pikachu flustered.

 

"Well, then. We must be going. We need to prepare to head back home tonight. We leave tomorrow." Dugtrio said.

 

"So I guess we won't be seeing you or Diglett for a while then, huh?" Pikachu asked sadly.

 

"I guess not." Diglett's voice was sad as well. "It was nice meeting you guys though."

 

"Oh! Before we forget, here are a couple items as a token of our appreciation." Dugtrio burrowed back underground, and shuffled around for a few moments before reappearing with a pink scarf with polka dots on it around the neck of the first cylinder, and a pink berry in the mouth of another one. They flung the scarf off and gently placed the berry on the ground.

 

"That's a pecha berry, but what's this thing?" Ginji asked, examining the scarf with his foot.

 

"You don't know? That's a pecha scarf. It'll protect you against poison type attacks if you wear it. I thought everybody knew that." Diglett explained.

 

Ginji wasn't in the mood to say something in his defense. He knew he probably shouldn't have opened his mouth to ask what it was in the first place.

 

"Great. Thank you so much." Pikachu picked up the two items and went to get the toolbox. He opened it up and placed them inside before running back to the cylinder Pokémon.

 

"We'll have some time to be in the square tomorrow. We might see you there." Diglett told Pikachu.

 

"That's good. If we don't see you again before you leave, both of you have a safe trip home." Pikachu wished them.

 

"Thanks. I really hope we see you guys again someday."

 

"I'm sure you will." Pikachu smiled at the young mole Pokémon.

 

"We best be off now. We don't know how we can thank you all enough." Dugtrio said. No one else had any time to respond because they were back underground in a heartbeat with Diglett following after them. The two Magnemite and team Heroes listened to them burrow away until they were far enough away to no longer be heard.

 

The Magnemite looked at Pikachu and Ginji.

 

"WE'LL BE ON OUR WAY TOO." The first Magnemite told them.

 

"Ok then. Again, thank you so much for the help today, Magnemite. We couldn't have done it without you guys." Pikachu said.

 

"BZZZ. WE DID SAY IT WAS THE ONLY THING WE COULD DO. BZZZ."

 

The two magnets drifted off in the direction of the square. Soon it was only the two members of Team Heroes standing in front of the base.

 

"What a day that was." Pikachu broke the silence.

 

"Yep. Couldn't have gone any better. Well, maybe there were a couple things that could have gone better." Ginji thought.

 

"That little fight we had?" Pikachu guessed.

 

"Yeah."

 

"Ginji, I'm really sorry for-"

 

"Forget it. It's cool."

 

There was another bit of silence before Pikachu decided to bring up something else.

 

"I've actually been wondering about the way Skarmory acted after we beat her. She couldn't remember anything about kidnapping Diglett and battling us at all."

 

"What's your point?"

 

"You can't remember anything about your life before waking up in Tiny Woods. Except Skarmory's memory loss was different. She knew who she was, she just didn't remember what happened between sitting on a mountain peak and getting up in that cave. Like she was in a trance or something while she was being aggressive. And she might not be the only Pokémon to have that happen to them. Remember how I said all these Pokémon were being effected by the natural disasters? Well I think there's actually more to it than that. All this news about Pokémon suddenly going berserk for no reason-that's got to be what happened to Skarmory. And her behaving feral might answer the question as to why other Pokémon are behaving that way as well. While they're behaving that way, they probably don't know what they're doing. Like something else is controlling them."

 

"Ok. That's a great analysis, but what's that got to do with my memory loss you mentioned at the beginning of your sentence?"

 

"Ginji, don't you get what I'm trying to say? The Pokémon living in these dungeons turning savage without reason is obviously tied to the natural disasters happening."

 

"Sorry. I'm new to this."

 

"And it seems they can't remember being savage whenever they become themselves again. If others even have." Pikachu went on, ignoring Ginji's comment.

 

"And?"

 

"Call me crazy but I'm thinking your memory loss is somehow related to all this. I don't think it was just a coincidence that I found you in Tiny Woods without any memory aside from your name."

 

"You're crazy."

 

"C'mon, you at least get where I'm coming from don't you?"

 

"I guess I do, but laying all this on me right now? I think you're over analyzing this too much. Me, on the other hand? I'm just gonna go ahead and say Skarmory was bumped on the head. Or simply effected by the disasters one way or another. Like you said."

 

"Maybe. Guess these disasters have been making me think too much."

 

"I just find it weird that smashing face first into stone walls over and over and then being burnt and electrocuted at the same time turned her back to her old self. How can Pokémon even stand something like that?"

 

"I've been wondering that for a long time. It sure is nice being a Pokémon. As for the smashing into stone walls, I don't think that's anything for a steel type Pokémon. After all, they have real sturdy bodies."

 

"Lucky them. It's still weird though. Usually smashing your head into walls like that would cause concussions, possibly brain damage, and probably even more memory loss. Yet it turned her sane again. Must be a good method for Pokémon when they've gone nuts."

 

"So we should smash you into rocks and walls then?" Pikachu snickered.

 

Pikachu was met with an irritated glare.

 

"C'mon, Ginj. You know I was just kidding."

 

"Yeah, I know." Ginji still held the look.

 

"You know Ginji. You were great today. The way you came up with that plan to defeat Skarmory, and saved me from falling down to who knows where. When you said you just wing your plans, did you really mean that?"

 

"Yep. I just trust my gut feeling."

 

"You don't strategize at all?"

 

"Nope. You said if yourself. I don't think. What's the point in it anyway? Thinking is boring. I just roll with what the voice in my head tells me. And usually it tells me to just go for it."

 

"Even if what it's telling you to do is dangerous?"

 

"Even if. Like when Skarmory had you hanging above that pit. I knew what I was telling you to do could be dangerous, and I didn't know for sure that either one of us was going to make it through alive. But I listened to that voice and went for it."

 

"Well, that's not always a bad thing. I mean, look where trusting your gut rather than thinking rationally and logically got us today. I will admit I'm guilty of that most of the time as well."

 

"Yeah. Kind of figured. I don't think either one of us thought about the outcomes of that tire Skarmory out plan. We could have easily flipped of the edge of the cliff we were on. We only stopped to think about it once and decided it was better not to."

 

"Yep. 'Just go for it' alright."

 

The two of them laughed a bit until Pikachu asked Ginji something he needed confirmed.

 

"So, I take it this means you're still gonna be in this rescue team with me?"

 

Ginji looked as if he was thinking the decision over. Or at least pretending to.

 

"You know, being part of a rescue team was never exactly my lifelong dream. In fact, just a week ago before I woke up in Tiny Woods I had no idea what a rescue team even was. I know I said that being on one isn't going to help me remember anything about myself faster, but it's not like quitting the team is gonna help my remember anything about myself faster either. So sure, why not?" He answered.

 

A big smile spread across Pikachu's face and his ears rose straight up. "Alright!"

 

"And you're still going to help me get my memory back?" Ginji asked, just to be sure Pikachu would keep his word on that.

 

"Of course. I said that I would when we first formed the team. I crossed my heart. And once I make a promise like that, I never break it. You formed this team with me, so I owe you. Plus, we're a team, aren't we?"

 

Ginji stopped to look Pikachu in the eyes for a brief moment. The mouse had said the same thing on Mt. Steel and received no response from Ginji. Half of the reason was due to their short falling out while the other half was due to Ginji not knowing how to respond at the time. Now on the other hand, whether he liked it or not, he did have to admit the obvious truth. They were stuck with one another for however long it took for Ginji to discover who he was.

 

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess we are.

* * *

 


End file.
